No Emotions
by Raigon
Summary: How do you make a person become emotionless? What must be taken away? What must be denied? What must be given in replacement of those feelings so that one doesn't go mad? This is a story about the roots that give life to the tree of Konoha, and how that darkness started from a single seed. For no good deed every goes unpunished. Sai's story. -A dark fic
1. Prologue

_**No Emotions**_

**This is a dark fic, so I am warning you before hand that you might not want to read it.**

_**Blood splattered the ground …tears pooled with the stench of death, and the broken look in people's eyes as they tried to think what this was all for. The life of a shinobi is one of death and pain, summon by the people to commit to a service that they themselves wished to have no part of, but, they are largely the cause. **_

_**It isn't fair.**_

_**The man thought as he slammed his fist into the smaller body in front of him. The child hitting the ground as blood spill from his parted lips and went down his face as he didn't stop, but drove the kunai home as a final measure. How many young ones will he kill? How many deaths will be acceptable until this war was over. He don't know how many times he walked over the corpse of comrades, and how many times he watched the life fade from the eyes of one whom looked to be still in the grip of childhood. A life lost, because of the madness of someone else. He hated it. Though he didn't stop; he couldn't stop because it was either him or them.**_

Suddenly a scream rip through his dreams as he shot up, and looked out of his window. The sounds of the child's scream was much more powerful than his own in his dreams as he saw that once more a child was strapped against a tree. His back turned so that the other children could see without a doubt the fate of one whom broke their most sacred rule. A whip hitting his back again and again in a matter that was almost musical in the way that it kept a perfect rhythm with the child's screams. Strike, scream, strike, scream, one after the other in such a way that it is almost impossible at some point to tell which came first, the child's scream or the crackle of the whip as it drags across his skin.

"It's a necessary evil."

The man declares as he flops back down, and closes his eyes again. There was no sense in letting it get to him as suddenly he hears the cry of another child. This one was sharp and high in tone …a girl he guessed as she yells out.

"Stop hitting him …stop hitting him." "He doesn't understand he is too young."

She screams as the one whom was beating him stops to look at her. He knew it without even looking that the man would glare at her, and a second scream would accompany the boy's this night. She had broken the same rule as him, and they both will pay for it.

"Humph, you are to show no emotion."

He told himself as he tried to block it all out, and the screams filled the night until the two were too weak to make any noises and their bodies were limp with pain. Not even wracking sobs would escape from their bodies at some point as they were either unconscious at some point or their bodies were beyond the scope of understanding any more pain. It is only then that they would be taken to the medical room to be seen to, because those children are too precious at this point to be allowed to die.

A living hell that even death wasn't allowed to take you from.

War.

**PROLOGUE completed**


	2. Chapter 1: Choices

**CHAPTER ONE: CHOICES**

The sun had just come up as all the children slept together curled protectively around one another after last night's event. Some had dried tears on their faces, and others were curled so far into the body of thier peers that they looked to be trying to disappear. Yet, it was clear that last night hadn't left any of them not phase, except, for maybe one.

A young boy sat awake. He looked to be at most 5 years of age as he stared at the door as steady as any rock. His black hair spilling across his face in different angles as some areas seemed to have grown longer than others at first glance, but if one took a much closer look it became clear that part of his hair had been ripped out of his skull at one point in his life. The scars covered by the black hair that spilled forth hid the evidences of how horrible the experience had been, but yet, those eyes that swirl in dark pools of brown showed more warmth than any could imagine. He had chosen to stay awake for the sake of everyone else. The pain of those whom were punished last night was etched into his brain, and he could if he closed his eyes see them behind his lids. Though, those images no longer stopped him from sleeping, because, as long as he had known the world …it had been like this. Painful and cruel, but, familiar and constant …he knew how not to get hurt here, but yet, he couldn't help craving the things he knew would in the end hurt him.

He loved listening to the other children's stories of the outside world, and being held in the arms of some of the older children when something really traumatic happen. It wasn't that he needed the comfort, but that he enjoys the feeling of being held close. It was unfamiliar, but at the same time something that made their stories seemed all the more real. Just like the times when they laughed, the times of tears, he knew each one wasn't suppose to be, but when they happen he cherished them all the more dearly. Even the sound of the last gurgles of death when one of the other children had somehow managed to enrage the man past his normal stopping point …it remind him that just like in those stories they were alive & there was something more beyond those bar windows. Though he doubt he would ever see it, it was still nice to think about it.

The girl that was beaten was one of the best at story telling.

If he had been able to get close enough …he would have tried to stop her from calling out, but, he had been tending to the pain of another boy. The punished boy's brother, he thought, as he helped the little boy fight the whim to scream out in tune with the other boy's beating. It had been hard, and at one point, he had had to put his hand over his mouth to muffle his screams. He could only guess that that was what probably had been enough to make her do what she did, and thus, he waited for her …for them. It was his job to do so anyway, because, he did have to wake everyone to quickly get them apart before the man saw them like that and punished them all.

He looked at the scars at the base of his arms and along his chest. He could only imagine the same could be seen of the area on his back though …they never had to go much further than his shoulder blades, because he already knew not to scream. So, satisfied that it wasn't his fault he was normally allowed to return without the need of a medical examination or a touch up. Small wounds, he wasn't supposed to feel anyway. Though he did, he felt everything, and it hurt to not be able to show it, but he knew it would hurt more if he does.

He was lost in thought, but still he heard them.

The three sets of footsteps that signal their return as he quickly gets up, and shake the nearest boy and girl awake. Each one rousing to his touch knowing that he can't afford to linger on them and what will happen if they don't quickly get up. Some upon waking turning to help others to get up …time wasn't on their side, but really, what else could they do? The trauma caused by this and their reactions to it are always the same. If they could they would stop it … just to avoid the pain, but it wasn't that simple. The impulse is stronger than the fear stronger than the pain.

By the time that the doorknob came open the majority of the children were awake. Only the newest were still sleeping as he tried desperately to get them up. He didn't want her to see that he hadn't tried his hardest out of fear of what was going to happen to him. If he did that, then she wouldn't tell him stories anymore as he manages to get one of them out of the three up and he was pushing the third away from the second one, whom was still asleep. Her arm suddenly curls around his arm. Pulling him close, she gave a muffle whimper as the boy's eyes went wide and the man behind him sneer angrily.

"So, you are trying to comfort each other now, huh?" "I can't believe it, or you just stupid or a glutton for punishment?" "Didn't you learn anything from last night's beating?" "Geesh, I guess it's your turns …"

He declares as he starts to come closer, and the girl whom had been asleep, at the sound of his voice jumped awake. Her eyes wide open as the boy slides in front of her to hide her fear. Her panic seems to be sweeping into his back, and he got a small glimpse of what had cause the girl to speak out that night. He didn't even hesitate as he thought of the one thing that would spare her from any punishment.

"It is my fault." "I thought she looked cute in her sleep, and wanted to pet her."

He declares.

The lie came much more easily then he thought it would as the others look at him and he could feel the tension as they force their faces to be come lifeless. He looks at the man with his brown eyes shining with color, and didn't show any fear. It wasn't like it would help him as he drowned out the panic that threat to crawl up into his heart. He knew, his lie was going to be worst than the truth, because he had seen what happens when one child was caught touching another in their sleep. The oldest boy and girl in this place had disappeared after the day they were found touching each other. The sound of their screams were enough to keep them all paralyzed with fear for a good week, and when it was all over …that man had come back to them drench in blood and smiling like he had won some big prize.

He was under no illusion that they had been killed at the end of that week. Though why did he feel that this girl's fear was enough to have the same done to him as he searches himself for any signs of doubt, or anything that would make him back off of his lie. There was none. His sight flicker past the man as he saw them. The girl and boy in the door way were the same two that had been punished the night before. He was right about their return, but they didn't look at him just the floor and nothing else. They were broken, and he knew there wouldn't be any cries from her to interrupt what was going to happen to him.

"SHIT!"

The man growls as he walks away from those two, and didn't hesitate to grab the much smaller boy by the throat. Holding him off the ground he spat in his face. The girl had in that time, had enough common sense to go stone face as well, and in that small glance there was some relief for the boy. It did not look like his lie would be found out from the emotions on her face.

"Why do you think you are here, you little dickless twerp!" "WE aren't running some type of get together for you little brats." "Stupid bitches, I told him he should separate them from these, penis-less pussies."

His anger was clear as he continues to hold the boy by the throat, while glaring at the children around him. He was looking for one of them to show even the tiniest among of remorse. A fragment of fear, an ounce of terror, and they would join the boy in his grasp.

Spots were forming in front of the youngster's eyes as the boy didn't even make a sound so that his assailant would recognize that he was suffocating. He would die without a sound and his existent would disappear just as quietly. No one would think highly of him for what he has done, but only use it as a remainder not to do the same. That was how he thought of those two older children. Yet, before it got to that point he felt his body flying across the space of nothingness. A sharp pain as his back hit something woke him up completely to the world that he knew to be his life. He had gone limp in the man's hand, and it was only then that the man realized he was killing him.

A hand clutching his own throat the child coughed violently as his body greedily tried to suck in air to make up for the lack he had had only moments before. Saliva hitting the ground as he had spit out the liquid that had threatens to fill his lungs in exchange of air, and his body was wrack with the pain of it all. It would seem with or without his guidance his body would react when it was enough to kill him. The man looks at him quite cruelly. He didn't take another glance backwards as some invisible signal prompt the two children he had punished previously to walk into the room, and away from him.

"Let's go, I want Boss to make the final decision on you." "He will determine how I will scrap this latest failure."

He was talking to the boy, but at the same time wasn't. IF the boy would have answered him then he would invite himself to have a few ribs broken as he was lift by the back of his tatter shirt off of the floor. The room that he knew to be his prison …his only place of safety quickly disappeared into the distances as they left for the world outside. The world he only got to see when they were training or being punished. How he wished it was the former today instead of the lateral.

Spit pooled down the side of his lips, but he didn't bother to wipe it away. Any kind of movements might make his life worst than before as he was taken to the big house.

It is a magnificent building that is a hundred times bigger than the shed that he called home. Colors, shapes, and many different things flash before his eyes as the boy looks on in wonder. This was the first time he can remember ever being inside of this place, and his thoughts of his future were immediately squash by the sight of it all. Though that didn't mean that he would have the ability to forget it for long as they went up the ivory stairway into the room further down the hall.

This building had two floors …as they enter the last room to see the boss. A man with black hair and jaded colored eyes staring at him with a upturn lip as he looks not at the boy first, but the man holding him with contempt.

"I am busy, why are you bringing that whelp to me, Tsume?"

He snarls, and the man suddenly shifts into a more formal position. He bows as he holds the boy in his arm as though he is just some ragged, dirty doll.

"This one was making intimate contact with another child, sir."

He declares and the man looks at him with a cock eyebrow. He was going to make another statement, but Tsume didn't wait to continue with his explanation. He knew what was to be done with the boy, but still, he felt he had to say it.

"I beat them, I hurt them, and still they show emotion." "Maybe, what you are trying to accomplish is impossible." "This one has been the closest to our attended goal, but as you can see, even he has become another failure." "Maybe, this is enough …maybe, this is as far as they can repress it, and it's time to just let the project die."

Tsume declares as for the first time the boy saw something in him other than utter contempt for the children in his stead. Did he sound like he was actually concern about their welfare, or maybe, he really felt that he had just wasted his time, and didn't feel like wasting more of it?

The man smirks darkly as he clicks a button, and a screen to the side of them suddenly came to life. It was a shot of the small shed. The children were huddle close comforting each other after what they knew to be the last time they would see that boy. Tsume's fingers dug into the boy's back, but the boy didn't even notice. His eyes were locked on the scene in front of him.

The little girl he had protected crying harshly as the girl that he was sure had been broken tried to comfort her. They all seemed to be sadder at his lost. Was they so disturbed by his death …as awe shone in those brown eyes as the Boss didn't miss that look in his eyes, and his thoughts were confirm.

"NO, we are simply doing it wrong." "That is all."

**CHAPTER ONE - Completed**


	3. Chapter 2: Inhumane

_**CHAPTER TWO- INHUMANE**_

**Okay, if you have been reading this so far, this is the chapter to miss if you don't like bad things happening to children**

The day had started off new. The sun had been up by the time that they had met in that room, and outside everything is warm and friendly. Birds chatter, butterflies cross though the skies, and bees hum their love of the world. Yet, inside a room that looks to be a palace to the boy, the coldest wind in existences blew. Those words that had followed the Boss's declaration had more power in it than any strike. His heart skipped a beat as the child whom thought that he no longer felt as others did …couldn't squash the terror fast enough. It gave movement to his legs, and even at the age of five he reacted as harshly as any adult.

"NO!"

A strong kick to Tsume's side cause him to release as the boy drops on all fours. His hands scrambling for purchase against the smooth wooden floors as he pushes off hard. His back legs straighten out as he goes straight into a lunge as the Boss's eyes went wide. Standing up as though in slow motion the man could see it in the child's bright brown eyes the intention of murder.

He would kill this bastard long before he let it happen.

A small hand grabs a letter opening from the top of the desk as he jumps onto it, and continues on with his movements. Second by second, he was getting closer and the Boss mere reaction was to try and get further away, but the chair that he had sat in earlier to give off the presences of calm was now a device to keep him trap. His body moving backwards with a slight resistance as the child moves without any kind of hindrance, whatsoever. It was no contest what the outcome would be, but yet, there was one more person to figure in as a hand slam into the child's back forcing him flat against the desk.

An angry flop and a second hand that went for the arm that held the weapon as it is force backwards behind the boy's own back, but not crumple inwards …just held outstretch and press as far back as it can go without breaking. The weapon trembling in those small fingers as the grip tightens, and the arm was slowly bent pass the point of its own physical limitation. There was no scream, but the weapon drops as the pain spike in the shoulder of the boy and he glares darkly at the man only two feet from him.

He had failed in his intentions, but Tsume wasn't going to let it go as simply at that.

A crunching noise seems to vibrate around the room as tears came to the boy's eyes, but still there was no sound from him. The boy is used to at this time to not responding to pain with sound. Instead to let it flow all through him, and keep it bottle inside without any extension for it into the outside world. Not even his facial expressions seem to at first acknowledge it as row after row of pain washes over that area.

The boss's own breathing just now becoming regular as it is slowly replaced by rage and anger. Tsume could see it as it happen and he knew the boy would get the cruelest of all the sentences that had been passed so far. The child that he held down would die begging for it, and with that Tsume releases the useless arm as it flops back down on the desk without any resistances. Broken and useless, this was just to be the starting point to the boy's pain & Tsume could see the tears curl up in the boy's eyes. The pain was starting to have an effect …though the face itself remains calm his eyes were watering from the strain.

This only drove home the point even further. They weren't even close to the emotionless killer they had sought, instead, they had merely created a killer whom could ignore their own reaction to pain & hide their feelings. He was no better than the shinobi that kills in the heat of the moment, and regretted it secretly afterwards. Any thoughts of going against the boss's plan falter with that sight. That wasn't the goal …not the goal at all as he looks up at the Boss.

Yet, when Tsume search there, he could see that the man was still trap in the waves of his own emotions. The anger, the hatred, all those things were flaring to life at the sight of the boy, and he could swear that he saw fear there as well.

The Boss's mind was racing at this point.

So close. The scales that had given him power had tipped so quickly, and if this child had been older …stronger…faster the results would have been different. A five year old had nearly killed him, and he recognizes for the first time exactly what is growing up in his shed. Killers, killers that were more than likely to one day take Tsume's life, and if they discover his involvement, his as well.

The thought to scrap the project flash in front of him, but, it was pure determination that drives out that thought.

If he does it right, then they would be his perfect army. Why scrape it now when he knew how to do it? When he had just come up with the perfect formula? No, this child was just a good example of how badly they had stray from their original objective and a remainder of the final outcome if they don't change it.

"Break his other arm."

The Boss spoke out sharply as Tsume saw the calm demeanor return. The Boss whom had been so emotional before seep away and the confident man whom had gotten him into this shit was back. Tsume didn't waste any time as he grabs the boy's other arm, and this time quickly jerks it back beyond its limitations as another loud snap is heard. This time the boy screams as the pain spike not just from one shoulder, but from the second as well …blending into a pain that is so rich and deep that there was no escape except into the darkness.

He had passed out.

The Boss once he is assured of his safety from the child leans down to his level. His chest pressing up against the desk as he grabs the boy by the hair, and holds him so that his face is perfectly level with his own.

"For his friends, I want to hear his screams like that every night." "I want him to beg for his death, and then …I want you to kill him, Tsume." "I don't care if it's emotional or if it's physical, but I want this boy broken into so many pieces that no one can put him back together again."

"Do you understand?"

Though he asks this question, Tsume knew it wasn't really meant for him to answer. Even if he didn't understand, the Boss will make sure that it is accomplish the way that he wants it to be, no matter what. Whether he realizes it or not, this boy had just become the Boss's special project. Something he would do outside of what he was going to do to those other children. His suffering would know no end, and as though to confirm the man's thoughts the Boss bent down. He releases the boy hair to let his face collide painfully with the desk.

"You tried to kill me." "Do you think I will let you off so easily, you little bastard."

Darkness, the boy awoke to darkness as he felt the pain spiking through his body and radiating as though he is on fire. He tries to sit up, and his arms move slowly causing more pain to spike through his body as he remember what had happen earlier. He gives up instantly on moving anymore as he just lay there. His arms were mobile again, which meant that they had healed him to some extent, so what now?

He knew from the silences that he wasn't back with the other children, and he doubt he would see them again. Was he going to be killed right off, or was he going to be tortured and then killed? The boy knew his life was over the moment that he had been brought to that room, and now as he lay in darkness the thoughts of how it would be done swirled around him. Each more horrifying than the last, but to the any eyes that fell upon him he looked to be an ocean of perfect calmness. Though inside, he is an emotional wreck as he staring upwards into the darkness.

He is not sure how long before he is calm down enough to allow him self to concentrate on other things. His mind not really working too hard on why it is so dark, because, this isn't the first time he woke up not to be able to see anything. Though, working more to try and figure out where he is now. Maybe, this is the room that the older children were placed in before they die as he squirms around a bit. The floor he normally lays on isn't his soft as he squirms a little bit.

The floor pricks him as though to convince him to not move around. Considering how sore he is …he isn't exactly going to struggle too much against his first instinct.

He sighs as his own voice seemed to rip through the silence.

He is really in a bad spot. He is stuck in the dark, he doesn't dare move, because something stick him when he does, and he had no clue what was going happen to him next. Yet, maybe the worst part is the silences as he turns his attention back to the darkness. If he could see something in the slightest maybe he could figure out where he is. Thus, he tries to concentrate solely on his face to see if there was any strange weight on it that might be covering his eyes. Maybe, he wasn't in a place of darkness, but that his eyes were cover so that it would seem dark to him. Yet, he didn't feel anything as a small panic starts to well up in him. What if the room itself isn't dark?

Just when his mind was turning towards panic a shaft of light comes into the world of darkness. The boy moves to put a hand before his face, but this time it only got about halfway up before something stop it. A glint of metal on his wrist makes it clear what was going on, and he sat up with the aid of his other arm clumsily. The pain was forgotten as the strange man stood before him as he took a deep drag of his cigarette.

"He is right." "You are cute."

He puffs out as the smoke rises into the air. He moves towards the boy as he sees nothing in the way of fear or even curiosity as he drew nearer. No, the man just sees a calm stare from the boy that seems to be looking halfway into his soul, and dark brown eyes that glowed whenever the light hit them.

"I don't know what you did to deserve this kid, but whatever it is, I am glad that you did it."

He purrs as he drops onto his hand and knees in front of him. The boy for the first time seeing that he is laying in a bed of straw with only a blanket to his back to keep himself from being stuck by the prickly material. The boy's eyes darting from the straw to the man in front of him as he noticed the lack of distances. The man's was crawling towards him like a dog, or more like the grizzly bear that he seems to imitate in looks. His breath stank horrible of the toxic smoke that he had been enjoying previously as the cigarette rests in one hand while he crawl towards him using the other.

He didn't know why, but something about this seem dangerous as the boy slides backwards as the man moves forward. His back hitting the wall long before the man reached his feet. He was already shackle to the bottom of the floor next to the wall. There wasn't anywhere else for him to run as he feels the man's body slide over his own, and his face comes closer as his eyes remain calm despite the fear that was crawl through him.

"What are you doing?"

The boy asks sounding as dead in his response as if he was reading from a script. There wasn't any life or really any curiosity in his voice. It was more like an automatic question to this situation, and one the man didn't feel like answering much as his face comes closer to the boy. His lips coming towards the boy's own as in response the boy turns his face to the side to avoid the contact. Yet the man doesn't stop as he continues onwards to press his lips against the boy's cheek.

He moved backwards a bit, and looked to see the boy looking at him out the corner of one eye. For the first time, there is emotion there, and he smirks darkly. It wasn't any fun if there wasn't any fear, and he was drinking this up as he takes his hand and puts it on the side of the boy's face to force it turn back towards him. The boy now struggling against his motion as he moves to try and bring his hands up to defend himself, but the chains only allows him to bring his arms halfway towards his face. His hands not getting much further than the top of his own chest, and not close enough to hinder anything.

The man smirks as the boy underneath him starts to wiggle and squirm trying to break free, and at the same time positioning him self perfectly. His legs trying to kick him away as they flail on both sides of him helplessly, because of the man's greater weight. Finally getting them together, the boy press his feet against the man's chest to try and hold him off.

The man laughs as one hand sweeps the boy's body to the side.

"We will do that later, but that's not what I want now."

He declares as he moves his face forward with no other hindrance and presses their lips together. The boy screams are muffled between their lips as he smiles even more darkly as he presses harder. His hands traveling much lower.

The boy's eyes wide in fear and panic.

The boy of course fought, but shackled and with size and weight on the older man's side it was only a matter of time. His screams echo across the compound as the children held each other tighter that day …for the last time.

Tears stopped flowing, the pain became dull, and as time passed …he couldn't even manage to scream anymore. His body just gave into the pain, to the humiliation, and to the knowledge that the only way he could tell time was by the number of men and women whom came to have their way with him. One eye was swollen shut from his earlier fight or maybe just one of them had decided to become rough with him simply because he no longer reacted. He knew he was hurt in some other places, but, it had long sense blending into nothingness. Pain was the same as breathing for him now, so, his body no longer response to it as being something uncommon. His body had known no other way to deal with the trauma, and his mind had started to systematically shut itself down. His eyes that had been a vivid brown had turned gray within the last thirty people as he welcome the darkness more than the light.

The light meant pain, it meant hurt, and in those moments he would let his mind wander back to the room he had traveled though with all the beautiful things in it. The paintings, the statues, the trees before that, and the world he only got a chance to glimpse in the eyes of his peers. His peers, his mind froze and focuses on single moments in time when they had the chances to drop their guard. Times in the early dawn when they held each other, laughed together, or the nighttime hour when stories were told to help the newest ones sleep. He wanted to go back to those times. Hell, he wouldn't have mind being tied to a tree and beaten a this point. He wanted to be anywhere but here now …anywhere but in his own body when it was happening as he felt himself curling up inside and dying. It was worst, because everyday, Tsume would come feed him and clean him up like some animal then put him back into the darkness to await the next horrible encounter.

He wanted to die. He know he had begged for it at first, but now, his entire being could picture no better end. Maybe, the one whom is using his body now will get too rough and end his misery. He hoped, he dreamt of that moment when his life will end and he would be consumed by the darkness that pressed heavily around him. His existence will end, and this nightmare will be left far behind him.

He lived for that moment now.

He didn't know how long it has been this way, but one day the Boss visits him. A smirk is on his face as he walks in without any fear of the younger boy as he notices that he had gotten bigger. Though that isn't what he was here to check out as he drops down to his level to look at his eyes. The brown had turned gray as he recognizes that any fires that were in him had long sense been suffocated. He touches his face lightly and the boy doesn't even react as he slides his hand across his cheek. It wasn't like he didn't understand what this meant to the boy, because he had watched it all, but he wanted to see if he would react to it at all. There was no reaction, and then he gets up slowly.

"Come in Hunter."

He declares sharply as a girl walks into the room. Her footsteps are slow, but graceful like an expert killer. Her eyes are void of any life as she walks towards the Boss and he walks towards her as if to greet her.

"I will release the other children if you kill him." "I want you to do it exactly the way I train you to do it, too."

He doesn't even give the boy time to recognize the meaning of his words as the girl simply nods. Her eyes a sapphire blue as suddenly a flash of memory sparks in the boy's grey eyes. She is the girl, the one whom had tried to stop the boy's beating so long ago. Yet, she too had grown in the time since he had last seen her, but he quickly realize that it wasn't enough to hide her identity from him or his from her as in his broken mind a flare of hope wells up in him.

The Boss's command had fallen on deaf ears.

She pulls out the kunai as the boy looks up at her with a shine in his eye that had long since been thought dead. He opens his mouth to speak, but his voice is long gone. It takes his brain a while to process this fact as she stands over him with the kunai clentch tightly, and then brings it down through his shoulder as his hope is washed away in pain and red.

Why?

He shatters as realization hits him. There is nothing for him anymore, no more dreams, and no more children to cuddle up against when times get too rough. They are all dead and he sees it when he looks into her eyes. There was not a hint of emotion there as it breaks something inside of him at the sight of her. Something so fragile that he didn't recognize it anymore as she lower her movements to his chest, stabs again, and then to his thigh as the kunai drops forgotten. He will bleed to death slowly now from his wounds as she touches him. The softness of the touch is one that he quickly recognizes as his world bottom out on him, and there is no hope of putting the fragile thing that had shattered back together again.

The grey in his eyes turns black.

He feels her as she works on his lower body, and her hands move expertly to free his body. All the color in the world vanishes then as he recognize that even those whom gave him a world to dream of …would in the end turn it to ash. A void slips in there, in which, he becomes numb to everything. The world, his life, the feeling of anything beyond nothingness became lost to him, and when it's all over his face is wet with blood.

Her head lie against his chest, and her body covers his own. Blood drip slowly, he notices the Boss slumping slowly down the far wall. His blood leaving a streak behind him as his body descends towards the floor with the help of gravity. There is no joy in those eyes that watch it. No sense of justice, nothing as the girl falls from him to lie in the straw beside him, a kunai dug all the way to the hilt in her back. His eyes notice this lazily as he feels cold air on himself. His body exposed to the elements, but that wasn't anything new as he slowly shifts his view upwards. There is a shadow over him as the man leans over him and places a hand on his head. A firm hand that tangles itself into his black locks as he smiles at the boy, and tries to reassure him that it's alright now.

The boy's head rocks back and forth like a lifeless doll as the man moves it, while roughly rubbing his hair. He drops down so that the boy can see his face better and the short straight black hair that drips down his face. The man in front of him can't be any older than forty at the most, and at the youngest thirty. Yet, the lines in his face tell of another 20+ years that must have been added onto his life by one trauma or another. Yet, the face had a kindness to it that the boy didn't even know where to begin to understand.

"I am sorry squirt …I wish it would have come earlier, but, I just got the orders today." "You have been through a lot ...I know, and this probably doesn't mean much to you, but I am here to set you free." "The other children … should already be waiting on you." "Though, I hope those bastards that did this to you find a very comfortable place in hell."

He looks into the boy's dull eyes as he tries to think of what else to say. Anything to express the remorse he felt about what he is to do next.

_How many times will I be the one to do it? How many youngsters will I have to kill?_

The man put one hand over the boy's eyes as though to close them or to shield him from what he was about to do next. Though he doubts the boy care, maybe, it was for his own sanity that he didn't have to see the life drain from his eyes. He didn't have to recognize the finality of what he is about to do next. He could always leave, and let the boy die on his own, but the cruelty of such a situation would only be worst than doing it cleanly.

The shackle suddenly gains his attention as he plunges the kunai into one to pry it open and then the other. At least the boy would die free, he doesn't remove his hand from the boy's eyes as he worked, and then turned his attention back to what he must do. He didn't want to take another life, especially one this young. One that had known only suffering, but maybe, that was for the best as he moved the kunai to the place over his heart.

His hand shaking slightly as he looks at the child. The boy hadn't even bothered to move throughout the entire exchange like a broken doll. It would seem that his life would know nothing put pain at the hands of adults. He could already tell he had been abused, and as he looked at the body of the dead girl he realized the boy wouldn't care for anyone his age either. His entire life was nothing more than people hurting him, and now it would finally end in one last painful moment.

He curses this child's fate. He didn't want to do this, but, maybe it was best at times like this that there is such a thing as orders as he remembers them and steel his resolve. He didn't have to think. He only had to finish off the mission, and let this moment live only in his nightmares.

"I'm sorry."

Blood splatter the straw one final time as the light that had stream through the open doors give way to darkness.

_War tends to like its victims young_

**Chapter two – completed.**


	4. Chapter 3: MIA

**CHAPTER THREE: MIA**

_**The darkness swallows everything as the sounds of the day breaths its last in the coming twilight. The children numbering at 34 were all dead by this time, and only one remain as the man sat beside him. The only noise in the room is the steady dripping as blood ran its course upon the surfaces that it had been spread. Running, gathering into a pool, it was like the blood was desperate to be together again like it had been in the veins of the deceased & wounded.**_

**_Even the blood that splattered the walls seemed to be trying it's hardest to gather in a pool as it dripping continued long after the bodies had gone cold._ **

The man didn't know why his mind went there as he sat in the straw. He knew he should have left long ago. He should have gone to the met with the rest of his squad, but for some reason he felt he needed to stay here. Like the blood that pools back together even when separated he felt that now he needed to be at by his side. His eyes glance over at the prone figure, and he looks upwards at the expansion of darkness all around them. The silence that fills this room is so deep and profane that he thought twice about breaking it with his voice. Yet, in the end he does …as he glances back at the prone body again.

"It's okay to simply let go now." "I know you struggle so hard to stay alive through all of this, and I know you experienced a lot of pain, but it's over now." "You can rest."

His voice declares as he shatters the silences as he looks at the child. His last kunai embedded through the straw into the wood beside his head. He couldn't do it in the end. Those dark eyes that saw nothing, felt nothing, he couldn't send them into the nothingness to dissolve pass the point of existence. How could you ask anyone to end such a pitiful existence with one's own hands? The man sat there for an hour as he places his head into his palms.

He is simply waiting for the boy to die from his wounds as the blood turns the yellow straw red with its content. The man had long since push the boy's eyelids close, and they remain close to make it look as though he is merely sleeping. The boy probably too weak to raise them again, and he could feel the impending death in the air. Time was not on the child's side, so, why is he still here? The boy's chest slowly rising up and down as a slight gurgle could be heard when he draws each breathe. He is drowning on his own blood, and the man shivers despite the fact that the night air is relatively warm. It is a slow painful death, and he could put him out of his misery in a matter of seconds if he chooses. Though he can't make himself take that last step, his consciences a wreck as duty and morals for once conflict.

He places a hand on the boy's head. It is then that he notices how cold he is, and without a second thought the man gathers a blanket out of his pack and places it over the small body. He hadn't even thought about the fact that he is still nude underneath the covers as he just sits there by his side. He only wants the boy to be comfortable in his last moments. To at least for once, feel that someone actually cared about his feelings, his fate. Though maybe, the boy is too far gone to acknowledge any of this, and the gestures are simply an illusion of his own consciences. Who can tell in such an instant, but, then again, should it really matter?

Did it matter if his act of kindness if acknowledge in such a moment? For the most part, it will not save the boy, but only make him feel more comfortable about the boy's death. So, why shouldn't he do this? Why shouldn't he comfort a dieing boy in his last moments of life, instead of plunging a kunai through his already broken body? There was no reason not to, and so a hand going to the boy's head. Touching it lightly, he tries and comfort him as he repeats over and over again

"It's alright to just let go." "You can rest now."

Time steadily ticks by, the boy is sweating slightly and he could see that breathing for him is become more of an effort. The gurgling sound has become much louder, and his breathing becomes more of a wheeze. How much more time did he have left? By now, the man has dealt with enough death to understand that these are the final signs of life, the end is near. The man starts to speak softly as he strokes the child's hair.

"That's it." "Just let go …you don't need to breathe again." "It's too hard …just go to sleep and rest." "I am sure your brothers and sisters are waiting on you."

The man declares almost feverishly. Each time the child takes in a breath of air the man wonders if that one will be his last. The time continues to tick by, until finally the child tries to inhale, but it is suddenly cut short as if there isn't enough room in his lungs to fill anymore & a silence comes after that that makes a dead weight in his soul. He waits, but the child doesn't release the air from his lungs, he doesn't take another breath. It was over, and the man pulls the blanket over the child's face. He lowers his own head as he continues to stroke the boy's hair when suddenly the doors are flung open. A man, a medic-nin from the looks of him charges into the room, and takes one look at him and calm down.

"Oh, Commander, you are okay!" "Man, don't scare me like that." "Everyone is already at the meeting spot." "We didn't lose a shinobi on this one, but you would think we had gotten our ass beat the way that everyone is acting." "Anyway, you are way late, so I decided to come get you." "You still suck on getting your ass to the meeting place without any help, so, let's go." "This mission is over with, and if it went as bad for you as the other guys …I promise to buy you a drink."

The man declares as he smiles lightly. Though the smile is quickly drop when he stare into the eyes of his commander. The man's eyes are bloodshot red and his hands are trembling so hard that they won't stop even though he has them clench together so hard that his knuckles are turning white. The younger twenty year old male looks at him in confusion, and then takes a good look at his surroundings. The main mark is dead on the far wall, and a young girl lays not more than two good steps from the commander, a kunai is in her back. Then there is another body …a boy underneath a blanket. His eyes widen at the recognition of where the blanket must have come from. It's the commander's blanket, he could tell because it's the only one with that insignia, an ugly bear/lion, that his commander had repeatedly told them is a dog.

The medic-nin sighs lightly.

He understood without them having to say anything. He had after all been under this man's command since he left the academy during the war to join the fighting rank. This man always made a special effort to take care of him then, and keep him out of the worst of it, even now it seems. That was probably why he had been sent into the mansion instead of being told to go out to any of the three shacks set up outside. They had probably been full of children like the two beside him.

"There was nothing else you could do." "It is what was ordered." "No living person whom had any parts in this secret army was to be left alive, and that included the children they were training."

He declares trying to reason with his boss. The medic-nin now knew why everyone else had seemed so down. No shinobi ever dreams of killing children for a mission, but then again, that was why their group had been sent. This group is one of the oldest shinobi group that is still active, and probably the only one whom would have completed such a mission nowadays. With the war over, the thought of killing innocents make even the most renowned shinobi's stomach turn. No one feels such a sacrifice has to be made anymore, but, that was only because their group exists. They took the jobs that no one else would want, but, that needed to be done. He went to his commander's side as the man didn't even move to give him room to sit. Instead, his commander simply stares into the space beyond him as though he could see something there that the medic-nin beside him couldn't.

"He looked to be about five or six." "Just a child, he is around the same age as my daughter." "I don't know how I can look them in the eye knowing that I ..."

The older man rants as his head is buried once more in his palms. As a medic-nin, the youngster of the group finds himself more than once playing the part of the counsels as well as their traveling doctor. Sometimes, the mission requires more than even these old dogs can handle. Thus, he patiently waits for him to finish his statement, to continue where he left off, but the medic-nin would never hear the rest of that statement as they are interrupted by the sudden sound of coughing behind them. The two men jump in surprise as one looks back and the other reacts. The Commander turns around fast to whip the blanket off the face of the boy to see that his eyes are open, and that he is spiting out blood as his body is racked painfully by coughing fits. It didn't make sense, the boy had stopped breathing five minutes ago as the medic-nin doesn't even look at his Commander as he scoops the child head off the ground and turns him sideways. He didn't want the boy to choke on his own blood as one hand goes to his chest. Chakra pours into the boy's body to try and fix what is broke inside as he looks over his wounds; they are deep in his chest and shoulder, and then he looks over at his Commander.

"You never touched him?"

He accused. It wasn't hard to figure out why. Both wounds are deadly, but won't kill instantly. If the commander had been the one to strike him the question of this boy being alive wouldn't even have to be answered. If his commander starts a job, he will damn well finish it, so these were wounds the boy already had. This also meant, that the reason he hadn't went to the meeting spot was because he had been waiting for the child to die on his own. The medic-nin understood it all within the scoop of a few moments as he starts to work on helping the boy survive this as his Commander watches completely caught off guard and numb.

It takes only a few minutes to stabilize him to some extent as the medic-nin looks over at him with a tired glaze.

"He will need a transfusion." "He has lost a lot of blood, but other than that …I think he will make it." "We need to take him back to the village immediately."

The Commander looks at him darkly.

"Why did you do all of this?" "You know we will have to kill him, anyway, so why?

The medic-nin didn't even turn around as he gathers the boy in his arms. The blanket pull protectively around the boy's body as his breathing is still labor, but for the most part no longer obstructed. His head is press into the younger man's chest as the medic in his own mind is assessing the trauma that has been done to the young boy.

"For the same reason why you didn't put a kunai through his heart earlier, Commander" "I can't see myself putting someone whom has suffer this much to death for no other reason then he exists." "Besides, if he is willing to fight this hard just to stay alive …can I as a medic-nin do anything else but help him?" "So, let's make it a point to take this boy to the Hokage before we report to the elders." "Maybe, he won't have to die after all, because you know how weak hearted that man is."

The Commander actually laughs lightly as he stands up. The two friends left side by side to gather the rest of the men. The medic-nin was right, each one was experiencing their own private hell & trying to repent in their own ways, but for some strange reason at the sight of the small child, a part of their own burden was lifted. One child would be taken away alive, and whether his future would allow him to stay that way for the moment everyone as their own private victory.

Three days later, the boy wakes up to the world of white. He is in a comfortable bed, and wrapped in bandages from his chest area to his shoulder. He has clothing now …white cloth that doesn't go all the way around to the back, and he looks towards the doorway for any sign of what is to come next. He looks expectantly for someone to come to hurt him any moment now. Nothing this soft, this comfortable can come without more pain and suffering and he knows this from experiences. Thus, he waits for it, and he is not sure when, but during the wait he falls back into to sleep. His expectation though isn't disappointed as nurse comes in while he is napping, and immediately set to cleaning his wounds and bandaging him back up.

Somewhere during the changing, the boy becomes aware that he is being moved about as he hears her voice in his sleep. Not opening his eyes just yet, she talks to him in his sleep as though he is awake. She even goes so far as to warn him before she put medication on his wounds. The boy racks his brain then as he tries to figure out where he is hurt at. He really didn't feel anything like pain that comes from being hurt. Yet, he doubt that she is lying. No one would make the extra effort to be bandages on a healthy person. Thus, he continues to listen as she warns him before she put the stinging stuff on his chest, that it might hurt a bit. It's doesn't lessen in his mind the pain that he will feel as he feels her fingers on him, and try to ready himself for unavoidable results. Though, as she places the ointment on him he finds that the pain isn't how he remembers it. It's not as sharp as he remembers it or as vivid. It's more like a needle that has been stuck in your foot for a while. You know it should hurt, but, for some odd reason it doesn't until you try to pull it out. Well, no one is pulling this needle out, so, he just knows that it should hurt. Though, it actually doesn't hurt at all.

He opens his eyes to look at her. To make sure that she is actually putting something on him. Maybe that is why it's not hurting, but when he looks, he sees the jagged edges of his skin sliced apart. The blood red meat underneath that seems to bleed as she smears more of the ointment on it. It looked really raw, and he knew it should have burned like wild fire, but yet, he felt nothing.

Thus, he is left with a big problem.

To acknowledge pain, one must feel it right, but he knows it should hurt, because the nurse told him so before hand. Not only that, but he saw the wound himself …it should have been unbearable. Yet, there is nothing, there is no pain, just a numbness to let him know that something is occurring there. It should have scared him, but he couldn't remember how such a thing should feel …he just knows it should be the emotion. He has felt it before …though why he can't feel it now is beyond him as he waits for her to start on other areas of his body. The nurse though doesn't go any further than dealing with his wound as she bandages his chest back up.

It is only then that she notices that he is awake.

"Oh, you are awake."

She blurts out obvious surprisingly loud in this quiet place.

"Tell me, is this too tight?"

She asks, but he is at a lost as to what to say. If she hadn't been working on it, the boy wouldn't have even been aware that he was bandaging him up. He tries to think of how to react. What should he say to her about how it feels when he doesn't even feel it? It takes a moment, but he finally decides on what to say as he replies brutally honest.

**CHAPTER THREE - MIA**


	5. Chapter 4: ROOTS

**CHAPTER FOUR: ROOTS**

The days seem to pass rapidly. The sun disappearing and reappearing as if by magic, and life seems to go on normally. The past is quickly being swallowed up by the present, and the present is on the tail of the future as the two shinobi stroll without a care in the world through the village. It has been three days since the incident, and though it hasn't been forgotten it was no longer such a fresh wound, especially considering the fact that the child is still alive. Nothing has been say about his future, but as the Medic-nin had retorted hundreds of times, "no news is good news". The Commander is not so sure of this, but either way, life for them is good as they make their way to the Ramen shop today.

It wasn't that there weren't other restaurants that they would rather go to, but Ramen is kind of cheap.

For the Commander, Ramen is inexpensive enough that he doesn't have to be afraid of his wife wanting to gut him for wasting their money on it. Thus, the two friends were there eating when one of the Genin came barraging into the place. Since, the end of the war, the younger shinobi have mostly gotten jobs that a carrier could have performed, or that a less than lazy person could complete on their own. This to the two shinobi was a vast improvement over the life or death missions that academy students used to recieve in the past. In fact, the Medic-nin would shake his head at the sight of them.

At their age, he was tottering behind the Commander as the man tries to pushes him out of the way of enemy fire. As an academy student whom went straight from the classroom to the battle field, he could definitely appreciate the more boring jobs. Though he hadn't missed the complaints from the current genin about the missions, and he chuckles lightly.

"Why don't the young appreciate what they have?"

He asked once the girl left, and his Commander cocks an eyebrow at him. It wasn't hard to miss the scowl on the child's face, or the constant mentioning of what a waste of time this is for her. Yet, still, for the Medic-nin to make such a statement. They are the original complainers considering that their entire position came into being behind one serious one. Not that it was a bad idea, but, he couldn't help remembering Tsunade's very heart felt pled as something closer to be an explosive argument.

Thus, to hear a Medic-nin complain about such a thing is funny, especially considering the one in front of him.

"Really, you are one to talk, who keeps complaining that your girlfriend should get more serious about your relationship." "You know, there will come a time when you will be begging for freedom." "Hell, I can't even spend the money that I work so hard for without my wife nagging me."

The medic-nin burst out laughing as he turns his face away from his Commander. They were still in the Ramen shop after all, and his proclamation was loud enough that everyone at the stand was looking at them. Worst still, he was having a hard time trying to keep his imagination in check, if the Commander's wife got even a whiff of what he said.

The man swallowed his laugh before it could escape again.

"Do you really have to be so loud?"

He asks shrilly. The Commander giggles as they head for the hospital. The message was a relatively good one. The child had woken up, and thus, they both were going to head there to check on his progress. Though what would greet them wasn't so simple.

The walk to the hospital is pretty much a thirty minute walk. One of the village's biggest buildings is set up on the opposite side of the evacuation zone, the places where villages go in times of crisis, and in the midst of the right quad. The Commander had never been much for strategy placement, but he has long sense figure that this had a lot to do with the ability to keep them safe. Putting all your eggs in one basket would be suicide, and besides that, the placement of one would immediately compromise the other. Thus, the two are separated, the evacuation zone from the hospital, with the hospital being more expandable. The future of the village will be hidden in the evacuation zones.

"So, what are you planning to say to the squirt?" "Are you going to adopt him?"

The medic-nin asks, and the Commander glares back at him.

"You should be the one to adopt him considering that you are the one whom actually save his life."

He looks around kind of nervously as the Commander waits for the medic-nin to answer him.

"Don't you know anything, sir, if a bachelor like me was to suddenly end up with a child …I can pretty much kiss any chances of being tied down goodbye." "Nope, I could get a woman with a brat around, but since, yours isn't going anywhere you are a better choice." "Besides, you saw him first."

He exclaim as the man shakes his head, but the Commander is smiling anyway. He wouldn't mind adopting a son for his family, and he is sure that once he tells his wife the child situation she won't have any problems with it either. Though it was probably a good idea to introduce the idea to her somewhere …where there isn't any ready weapons to throw at him. That meant the kitchen was out of bounds, bedroom, living room, upstairs, downstairs, and a slight bead of sweat started to run down his face as he couldn't figure out a safe place in the house to discuss this matter.

"Hahaha, the garden should be the safest place to discuss it, after you make it a point to gather all the tools out of the yard."

The trouble look went away as his smile came to his face as the Medic-nin smiled as well. It was scary how he can sometimes figure out what the older man was thinking.

Anyway, the boy had a home now, because once the Commander made up his mind very little else will stop him. Thus, the two were in a good mood when they enter the hospital, but that didn't last long when they enter to notice that there is about five anbu in the lobby area. Their faces hidden by a mask as the receptionist looked more than a little nervous about what was happening. They were squaring off against the medical staff as chakra flicker in the air. A fight is forbidden here, but rules are only as good as long as they are followed and the Commander was seriously wondering if they would be followed.

"I don't admit patients to this hospital so you can kill them."

A loud voice cuts though the normal calm demeanor of the hospital. The Commander took one look back at the medic-nin and pretty much was running up the stairway. He didn't need any guidance to the room, because he had been there plenty of times over the last three days, enough in fact, to be able to find it blindfolded. His feet making no sounds on the tile floor even though he broke in to an all out sprint once he hit the right floor. He approaches the room to see two other Anbu outside the child's room, and a third being held at bay in the doorway.

The medical officer had his weapon drawn as he made if clear that they were not going to get pass him.

"The Hokage made the order this child isn't to be harm, and I will be damn it happens during my watch."

The head doctor glares at them dangerously. A man whom had healed in the field of battle, he is a master of death at this point, and one of the more dangerous people to have to face. Even the Hokage, himself would find his mission impaired if this man blocked the hallway, so the Anbu didn't have a chance. The role of the Medic-nin is separate and equal to all shinobi, thus, a head medical officer like this is the equivalent of a Hokage inside these walls. To go against him is suicide, or at least you will be wishing for it once it's over, because in this line of work you will definitely find yourself here at some point or other before those hands. Thus, the Commander was surprise to see that anyone would try to harm a patient here especially one under the Hokage's protection.

"I told you before …if you want to kill him once he is discharge, I don't give a shit, but right now, he is under this hospital's protection." "Go back and tell the elder this for all I care, but you are not going to hurt him."

The man glares hard at the Anbu as their expression to the situation is block by the mask, but the leader sighs lightly and then holds up his hands. By the time he drops it, only he remains as he then turns and walks away. It would seem that for the moment, the child is safe as the head doctor sighs lightly. Life never is boring in a shinobi village as he turns to look at the Commander and the Medic-nin not more than a few feet from him. The Commander is replacing a katana back into it's sheathe as he raises a hand to wave as he addresses him.

"Hai,"

The Commander proclaims with a huge smile as the Doctor sighs lightly.

"The kid is alright, but, you know …even the Hokage can't protect him for long." "He is supposes to be dead." "I don't know what you two were thinking keeping him alive like this." "Geesh, he is an emotional wreck as is, and then, he is on every Anbu's hit list from here to the Hidden Sand." "When you take him out of here, I won't be surprise if he only makes it two steps before a kunai takes his life."

The man puts a hand against his face as the Commander takes a serious tone.

"We will have everything figure out by that time, Doc. Yakushi, I promise so…."

Yakushi interrupts him with a single raised hand.

"Keep him alive, I know, I know, but really, do you have any clue what you are dealing with?" "That child isn't your typical war type refugee." "He was being train to kill, and not only that, but he was brutialize multiply times." "The scars that child has got to have … he will more than likely be on suicide watch for now until he dies naturally." "I am not sure if this is kindness keeping him alive like this."

The Commander's eyes went wide, and the Medic-nin could see the anger there. He was going to move to stop him from wringing the doctor's neck, but he lowers his eyes instead. Takes a deep breathe before he speaks again, and there is a steel resolve there.

"I know that." "I know his life won't be easy, but, he deserve a chance." "He is still young enough that maybe we can do something …we can maybe change his destiny." "Fuck, I was sure if anyone would understand these sentiments …it would be you, Yakushi."

Yakushi's eyes flares to life as well. He understood his sentiments. His son came from a situation similar to the boy in the room, but, there is a difference in their ages, when they were adopted, & more so in what had happen in their lives before hand. An infant remembers nothing, while a five year …damn.

Though he takes a deep breathe, and let all the tension go.

It isn't worth a battle considering that it's not in their hands anyway.

"Fine, come on, maybe you will understand better if you look at him yourself."

The Commander and Medic-nin follow him into the room. The boy in question is looking upward at the ceiling. The entire mess at the entrance to his room hadn't even gotten his interest as those dark eyes seem to see nothing at all. A question crosses both of their minds whether the boy was blind or not as he slowly shifts his vision to them. His eyes a black void as the nurse is currently re-hooking him up to the machine. The woman having a hard time finding a vein as she sticks him multiply times, but the boy doesn't even glance at her.

"I am having a hard time determining if he is like that out of shock, or, if it's a technique that was used on him." "He doesn't seem to response to much of anything, and that includes pain." "I don't have anything else to compare him to, but I can't help wondering if this you guys moved too late and they were successful in their aims." "IF so, how are you going to handle a child that has no emotion?"

The Commander didn't miss the question as he looks at Yakushi's back. The man checking the child's vitals once the nurse is done, but the child didn't even seem to take notice of his touch. Even though the Commander seems rooted in his belief, the Medic-nin beside him seems to be a little less confident. To raise a child like this, is going to be a long and heart wrenching process, and for the Commander whom isn't exactly one on patience with grown men, did this child even have a chance?

Though when he looks over at the man a stupid smile is plaster on his face. It is love at first sight, and as the two leave the hospital later it becomes clear that whether the fates are completely against him that boy is going to end up in his Commander's care. The man talks about him non-stops, and the medic-nin can't help smiling at his friend. If only he could see into the their futures enough to know if he should back him up, or do his best to end this as mercifully for both parties as possible. He would do just about anything to protect the man beside him.

Neither man is aware of what fate has in store for them as the Hokage found himself confronted by the Elders. It wasn't any secret that the one whom save the child had been his challenger for Hokage, and that their view on how to deal with things differ, but really haven't he earn the right by now to be trusted to make his own decisions. The Elders were so against the child's existence that it confuses him. They were just about willing to go against the Hokage himself to achieve this objective and with the currently rogue Orochimaru & the entire Uchiha situation, the Hokage himself found his leverage of power slipping. Thing were happening without his control, and it was pissing him off. It was like his position was merely as a figure head. Important decision were being made and carried out right underneath his nose as he glares dangerously at them.

"You will not commit murder on these grounds, again." "I see no reason for that child not to be allowed to grow up here naturally in this village."

The Hokage declares heatedly from his desk. His hands locked together as his eyes barely look over his fingers to the three figures standing in front of him. The village elders, the second half of the decision making process of Konoha, it is funny when you think of it. A Hokage is supposed to be the leader, but the elders themselves at times run the show. It wasn't something that is easy to accept, but they are a necessity. No man can alone make all the decisions concerning the village, but, he should be informed.

"Haven't you learned anything?" "We accepted the enemy under our roof before, and because of that the Fourth & god knows how many shinobi were lost." "We can't continuous keep making the same mistakes over and over again, and with this recent issue with Orochimaru …we can't afford such a child." "WE have enough war orphans of our own without rising one that might very well try to destroy this village at some point in his life."

The male one spoke as calmly as a lake before the storm. His voice, not rising or falling though his words could slice though someone like a knife through butter. He looks at the Hokage expecting him to say something to counter, and seeing him merely resting his head against his hands. His back in his chair as the window behind him let the light wash over his back.

"So, we just kill him."

"Right now, he is innocent of all crimes except for existing." "Do you really feel that is acceptable?" "Well, if you are so concern about his future, why not make a place for him in this village separate of everyone else, but in a role where he will constantly have supervision?" "Why not set up a Roots division of Anbu?"

He could see the surprise expression on their face as he said this. He had had three days to think over how to deal with this problem, and to go over all the angles in which they would come at him. He couldn't condone a child being killed on the grounds in which they are bring. Though, if they don't come up with some middle ground the child will be killed anyway. He knew that much, because, of reports he has already received. Other than a full blown out war against him and the powers that stood in front of him, he saw no other way around this. The village couldn't withstand a war from within. They would be torn apart by the other shinobi villages, during such a time of weakness.

"Raise them from infants to die for this village, & in the same moment help out with our shortage in the Anbu ranks."

The third one spoke. A male like the first, he looks at the two others with a smile on his face. This was after all, a perfect middle ground in his opinion, but, the one female in the group wasn't willing to let it go at that.

"What about the child in the hospital?" "Is he to join their ranks as well?" "Anbu are privilege to information and jutsu that no other shinobi is allowed."

He knew that they would eventually get back to the fate of the child. Though, he wished there was another way to resolve this as he takes a deep breath before speaking again.

"Yes, I want him to take part in it as well." "Considering what was done to him …it might be in our best interest to keep him under supervision." "He will be watched closest there, and besides, what sense would it make to destroy a weapon that we can use ourselves." "The child's training might benefit us greatly in the future."

The first level his eyes towards the Hokage as he finishes up his statement.

"Or, that child might be our downfall." "We don't know which, so I guess, at this time we will leave the child's fate in your hands." "Beside, your plan will insure that when those orphans grow up there will be a place for them in the village as well as a way to fill a need that badly needs to be filled." "A perfect solution for both sides, but there is still one more thing that needs to be addressed."

The three elders look at him then as the Hokage sighs lightly. He had all of his cards upon the table, and there was only one more left to show. It made sensed that they would agree with this setup, the foster care system is currently full of these types of children. Orphans, from outside the village, whom had no where to go. Unlike the ones, with a shinobi heritage when they reached the proper age the ninja academy wasn't even a suggestion. Thus, there was a growing fear of this population that had no place in the village, and what would happen when they came of age. The roots project would solve that problem.

"Then it will be so, that child will be one of the first members of roots." "As for the one whom will head the Roots academy …I am sure that you will agree he is the best man for the job."

The Hokage declares.

He knew this is the last thing that the Elders were indicating for him to reveal. There aren't many shinobi in this village who would train a child with the knowledge that death is all they would find in their futures. The Roots faction weren't going to know the peace that the regular academy students dealt with in between missions, and there wasn't going to be any hesitation in sending them into the worst of situations. They were being trained to either kill or be killed. To be successful or to die, there is no victory in escape for them, and he lowers his eyes to look at his desk. Then he brought it up to look into their eyes trying to search for any kind of loop holes in his own plan that normally seem to be beyond the Hokage in viciousness. Children being raised for no other purpose to their lives than to kill, this wasn't something that he would generally agree to. Never mind the fact, that he is the mastermind behind this solution. Yet, he is doing just that as he smiles at them and says the name of the one whom would head up the Roots Academy.

**Chapter Four – Roots Completed**


	6. Chapter 5: INTERMISSION

**CHAPTER FIVE: INTERMISSION**

They say that only a small pebble is needed to make a ripple in water, but what about an inferno? Is it the aftermath of a fire that blazes beyond control, or simply a spark that is left uncheck? In the village known for the spirit of fire, there are sparks everywhere that threaten the new found peace. Though, time will only tell, if these small sparks will turn into an inferno or simply be snuffed out by the wind.

The boy wakes up to yet another day in the hospital as the first light of dawn peeks over the horizon. It isn't as loud or noisy as the day before, and he doesn't feel as numb either. He can only guess that that means that his wounds are healing as he sits up. His eyes scanning his surrounding seriously for the first time as he try to piece together exactly where he is. This is not like the flicker of light in the darkness, the light in this room shows everything to him. The bed he is laying on, the floor beneath him, and even the way out. This isn't normal …he can't remember the last time he had been in the light for so long without pain quickly following behind it. He wasn't even shackled down.

The boy looks at his wrist for marks left behind by shackles. There are none, but he discovers something else as he holds his arm closer to his face. Turning it one way and then the other, it is the same on one arm and as he moves the second …he notices that it's the same there as well. He didn't remember his skin being so pale. One hand rubs against the other to try and revive his coloring, but no matter how hard he rubs the color remains the same. He blinks lightly there is no fear or panic at the lost, but, a simply acknowledgement that he is different now. He decides to just let it go.

Maybe, he is a different person in a different life.

It would explain how he is cover in light without pain now. It would explain why his bed is so soft, and why his clothing has a big hole in the back. It would explain why his skin is so pale, and it would especially explain why he can't really feel anything. Maybe, in this life there is no such thing as pain. If so, then maybe, this isn't such a bad place to be, but, it's kind of empty.

It was then that the boy remembers what the man had told him. He said if he goes to sleep he would see the other children here.

Though, where are the other children?

He had already looked around the room, so he knows that they are not here. Maybe, they are all in another room.

The boy's feet touch the floor, and it's small, but he feels a familiar sensation. It tickles the pad of his feet, and does a slow climb up his leg and through his spine. The floor is cold. Not enough to make him want to jump back onto the bed, but, enough that his mind acknowledges this fact as some sort of after note. Though it's strange, if it isn't that cold why does he notice it at all?

The boy once more has to change his focus as he walks out of his room to begin his search. His mind is constantly straying as if there is something wrong with staying on one subject too long. His concentration seems to be shot, but yet, he is able to keep up with the stream of information that keeps his mind busy. The pattern of the floor, the size and shape of the hallway, and exactly how many rooms is on the path that he is walking, he take notice of almost everything outside of his room. A mind that has for so long been deprived anything but the need to concentrate on surviving when release for even a moment found everything interesting.

The hallways from one floor to another seem to get bigger …though more narrow. They tapers off into varies corridors and into different rooms. Though everything is full of light, there is a constant repetition of the color white, which, for some reason is making him uncomfortable. He rubs a fisted hand against his eye. He felt kind of lazy with that color and even yawns lightly. If he had some colors on hand he would have thrown it up against the wall just to change it.

It's a really strong impulse for a moment, but quickly it dies down.

Within a couple of seconds he is left blinking lightly as he tries to remember exactly what had bother him so much. Though, in the end he lets it go. He was after all trying to find the other children, so he should be focusing solely on that…there are enough rooms to keep him busy for a while. The majority closed, so he doesn't bother to try and figure out what is inside of them. If the children are closed in rooms, then he isn't meant to interact with them, and he knows what happens when you don't do what you are told. Thus, he concentrates solely on visiting the open rooms. The boy only really gets one hallway down before he recognizes that there are a lot of hurt people here. Lots of adults, and they are all either a sleep or in some sort of stupor, because he can get all the way up to their beds before they realize he is there.

Though they all seem to have the same question, "why is he out of bed"?

It is like the rooms' theme song as they all make their demands in different voices and different tones, but almost exactly worded the same. It made this new world seem all the more interesting, and he would ask a thousand questions if he could. Yet, every time he opens his mouth to speak, he finds his breath caught in his throat. His voice doesn't bother to come out, and he wonders if that is trade off. He is a new person in a new place, but, he can no longer speak. If that is the case, he doesn't mind it too much. It wasn't like he was a big talker the way he used to be either, so he is just going to have to find a better way to communicate.

The demands that he goes back to bed gets more fearsome the more rooms he visit. They keep right on rambling or ranting about his presences now until he slings away. After five rooms like this, he only takes a quick look and then continues on. There was no sense wasting time with them, especially if he can see that his objective is no where in sight. It is starting to look a bit hopeless; the boy is rethinking his plans when he neatly sidesteps a rushing cart. An older male is pushing wildly as his eyes widen at the sight of the child he had nearly hit. His heel digs into the ground as he makes it a point to stop himself.

"What the hell?" "Where did you come from?"

The man declares loudly at the sight of him. The boy blinks a few times, and then turns to walk away. There was no point to the boy wasting his time trying to explain, because he already knew that he can't possible answer the man. Though, that response was probably one of the worst he could give the guy as a flush of heat crosses the man's face. The child wasn't even going to give him the respect of an answer, and that pissed him off as he reaches for the boy. It happens in a split second as his fingers grip the boy's shoulder and his grip tighten.

It was like a reflex. The boy grabs one of the man's fingers that touch him, and pulls it back without even giving it a sideways glance. The sound of the bone as its snap seem to echo through the hallway as the man's lecture died on his lips, and was replaced with something else. A scream …a loud scream that causes the hand to retract almost as quickly as the finger is broken. It hadn't been intentional, but for some reason the boy hadn't wanted to be touch. He turns around to look at the man's reaction.

Dead eyes look back at him as the man cradle his hand to his chest. The pain sparking up and down his arm as he cuts off his scream and start with just down right profanities as he holds one glowing hand over the other. It is as he works to heal the break that for the first time he takes a good look at the child in front of him as tears streak his face. Limp black hair that is uneven in places, as though he had had a bad haircut, skin so pale that it gives the impression that he has never seen sunlight, and that expressionless face. He remembers suddenly the Anbu that had visited the day before, and the child that they had been after. It also comes back to him exactly why they have been so interested in the child.

This child is a born killer.

"Fuck,"

He growls as one hand abandon his first intentions to slip into his sleeve. He pulls out a kunai as he holds it awkwardly. His dominant hand was the one that was injury, but that wasn't going to stop him from fighting if it's necessary. He glares hard at the boy as nothing flicker in those dark eyes …no remorse for what he had done, and no signs of any killer intention. It's a bit unnerving that the child looks completely calm as if he had merely been swatting a fly. A sudden movement and the man ready himself to fight; though the boy merely turns his back on him as he once more starts to walk down the hallway.

He didn't try to break his finger, and considering the fact he saw no reason to fight him the boy thought nothing of turning his back. The weapon in his hand didn't cause any sense of caution either. The way he held it was enough to assure him that he couldn't throw properly, and even if he did …the strength behind the blow wasn't going to be enough to make it frightening. No, the weapon now serve only as a threat, and he had had enough of that today not to wish to hang around for more subtle ones. The man though wasn't as willing to let it go.

"Don't move." "Stop right there, or I won't be held accountable for my actions."

The kunai shook lightly in the man's hand. There was no conviction in that voice. He really didn't believe it himself after how effortlessly the boy had broken his finger, that he could stop him. Yet, he is compelled to try anyway. The boy never cease in his walk as the man made his decision as a flash of black metal streaks through the air. Splotches of red dots the wall, a testament of what transpire in that hallway as the alarm roars to life only a few minutes afterward.

The entire hospital is in a panic by the time they arrive. The staff putting the rooms on lock down as they rush through the hallways. Weapon drawn, medic-nin searching the hallway as two men stand in the main lobby area with a look of impatience on their face. An uneasiness flicker between them and the head medical officer, but there isn't much they can do until everything has been handle here. A silent hope that things can be resolved quickly so they can search as well comes between them. Things were going to get much more complicated for the boy after this, and especially if there are any more casualties.

The sound of birds, the movement of people beyond that, he might not have taken much part in the world except for training purposes, but he did know what the outside world is. The wind sways his hair lightly as he looks upon a world he had only seen in moderation. His eyes casting one last glance at the hospital behind him as it sang with a fury at his escape. One cheek red with blood, he walks away though the crowd.

_**The other children are not in there.**_

The boy thinks to himself.

His way though the streets is constantly filled with distractions and obstacles as people stop him almost once every few steps to try and ask him about his welfare. The fact that he is half naked doesn't seem to help much, but, normally he has to only meet their eye once for them to release him. The blood on his face and those dark eyes made many stumble away. Though, he did run into one persistence woman that he had to come short of slitting her throat to make her leave him alone. The same kunai that had cut his face press against her neck the moment she drop herself to his eye level. The boy's facial expression never once altering as he looks at her without breaking their gaze, and she falters in the end turning her eyes down, a clear sign of surrender. He removes the weapon and they go their separate way.

_**This is troublesome. I need to change my look or I will never reach my goal.** _

He assess the trouble for him is his clothing. He kept getting strange looks, and he notices how some eyes linger longer on his back than front. The last thing he needs right now is to stick out. He was sure the adults back in the white building weren't going to be too please with him. Capture isn't an option, thus, he need to change quickly, but that wasn't as easy as he would have wish. It's a good five blocks away from the hospital section before he sees any children around his age.

They weren't the children he is searching for, and in his mind that makes them fair game. He walks towards them as the ground seems to dip off into a slope. Extending further, the land even outs again and then continues into a passing creek before sloping again on the other side. This area is hidden from the immediate eyes of others, and nothing short of standing at the edge of the slope would allow anyone to see them. He glances around to see if he is still being watch and though there is a few curious glances nothing that would need to be address. The boy then turns his eyes back upon the children below. This is the perfect place to go about his task.

He flips the kunai back out from it's placement in the grown. He had used some loose bandages to hold the weapon in place along his right arm like a makeshift sheathe. A quick flicker of his arm and a light tug is enough to pull it free even though it's secure enough that he could break out into a sprint without fear of it falling loose. His dark eyes focusing on the children as they play as he crouches low. He would observe first before he strikes.

Here on the land before the water, he notices that they are running around seemingly playing a game, except the child that is doing all the running isn't laughing. He is crying, and the other children seem to be throwing rocks at him.

Is that how children play here? It didn't look like much fun to him, but the children chasing seem to be having fun. Their mouths were open wide and a grin went from one side of the face to the other. The one running away expression is different. Tears streak his face, and he seems to be running full force with his arms trying to shield his head. Maybe the game differ by contrast in children, because there is a huge differences in size between the boy that is running and those that are chasing, as well as in number. It's a three to one situation.

Then it happens, the boy that is running trips. His feet catching on a small rock and he goes down hard on his belly. The three that were chasing suddenly seem to get more excited. His yell fills the air as their haunting laughs quickly follow. The boy had fallen and the children had converged on him like a pack of wolves. Now was the time to move, the boy drops down the slope that separated those children from him in one fluid motion. He doesn't even bother to pause as he lands, and goes for the nearest one.

There was no way that the child could be prepared for the boy's actions as the two that are further away jump backwards in alarm as their friend goes down with a quick leg sweep. Those black eyes shooting up to met their own as he finishes the leg sweep with enough momentum to push himself completely off the ground feet first to flip onto the fallen child's stomach with a small aid of his hands. Spit coming out of the fallen child's mouth to coat his own face and the boy's back as he squats looking at them from that position like a predator on the hunt. The two bullies no longer seem to be confident in their ways as they just stand there stun. It takes a moment, but the tallest of the bullies cries out loudly.

"Run!"

It was like the shot of a starter's gun as they both turn to run away. It wasn't a matter anymore of working together …as they tried to out race the other. Fearing that the one whom fell furthest behind would be attacked, it was an interesting race as they rush across the creek and climb the slope without losing much in strides. The dark eye boy didn't stop them. He had what he wanted underneath him as he turns his attention towards the coughing and sputtering body. One hand going towards the clasp of the child's clothing as the other presses the kunai against the child's throat. A clear warning as the dark eye boy steps off of his chest.

He strips the child down to his underwear before he let's him go. The boy had thought about taking his underwear off of him too, but, the child had peed on himself by the time he had gotten his pants completely off of him. The message to stay still wasn't as clear once he was no longer by his neck, but there are other areas that one doesn't wish to have punctured. The child's wiggling had stop instantly when the kunai dug into the ground inches from his crotch. A calm look on the boy's face shows no ill intent, but the kunai is another matter as the child in fear wet himself right there and then. The boy just stares he wasn't expecting that the threat would be that effective, and so, the underwear had become quite useless to him as he put on the child's other stuff.

The black shirt is too long, so it had to be cut. The sleeves interfering with his ability to grip things so he cut them as well, and the pants folded underneath his feet thus he had to crop them. It didn't take long with his kunai to set the clothing right as he looks himself over for any more hindrances. The boy had completely forgotten about the child that had fallen earlier. He was still press against the ground, but he had turn so that he could watch everything as his blue eyes shine in admiration of the pale skin boy. Only a slight scattering of rocks as the child moves to get off the ground caught his attention as the dark eye boy looks back into a blue eye one.

"Thank you, but I could have dealt with them." "Anyway, my name is Uzumaki Naruto, but you can call me Naruto."

He proclaims as he rubs at his face to get the dirt of it. The dark hair boy can only blink in response. He wasn't sure what the best response would be in this situation, considering he couldn't express himself with speech, and the fact, that he hadn't really been concern with his welfare. His thank you comes only as an aftereffect of him gathering new clothing to wear. The boy's blue eyes doesn't wavier as they wait for him to response, so he just shrugs and shook his head. It was the best he could think of as the blue eyes boy sort of gives him a confused look, and the dark eyes boy turns to leave.

"Wait,"

A shy grin creeps across the face of the blue eyes boy.

"Don't you have any manners?" "You are supposed to tell me your name too."

The boy stops cold as he looks back at Naruto. The boy is grinning wildly, and it gave him a sinking feeling in his gut. Yet, he had brought up a very interesting point. What is his name? Even if he could talk he couldn't answer Naruto's demand as he just stares. His mind flipping through the pages of his life that he dares to tread, and really there are only a few words that were consistently used for him whenever he was to come. Maybe, those words are his name, but any deeper thought on the matter was interrupted by a waving hand in front of his face. Naruto is stands less than 1/3 of a foot from his face waving his hand in his face.

"Hai, don't zone out on me." "I really want to know, what is your name?"

Naruto looks at him quite expectedly.

The boy shrugs. Maybe, if he gives him a hint he will leave him alone, and thus, he starts to gesture at his throat first. Then he rubs the bottom of he throat with his mouth open. No sound comes, and he then shakes his head as a symbol of no. One glance was enough to tell him that it had gone completely over Naruto's head. In fact, the look is clear enough on Naruto's face that even a blind person would know to drop it. Naruto just stares at him with a look that scream he didn't have a thought in the world and the inkling that that just might be true came not too far behind the assessment. He couldn't stay here long enough for him to get it. The boy turns to leave only to hear an echo in his steps. A quick glance backwards reveals that Naruto is following him from foot to foot.

"Umm…I kind of didn't understand that." "I'm not too good at guessing games, so can you do it again?"

Naruto declares and the boy shook his head. Though Naruto is quite persistence as the boy decides a quick exit is in order. The incoming sound of footsteps made any kind of hesitation meaningless as they both run away from the area. The boy at some point actually got serious about his run as he tries to lose his new bright shadow. A good thirty minutes later, he understood why those children had been throwing rocks at him earlier. Naruto's lack of intelligences is greatly made up for by both his stamina and speed. The scream rips through the village.

"Wait, show me that one more time!"

The sky is burning with varies colors by the time he finally gets to the point where he can no longer run. The boy had at this point taken a tour around the majority of the village as he lay out in the grass on his stomach. The reason for his mad dash is laying not more than two feet behind him. Naruto is outstretched in the soft grass as well. His breathe coming in sharp pants, but nothing that a few minutes of resting won't cure. Yet, even in a state of exhaustion that doesn't seem to be enough to stop his mouth from running.

"Today was fun." "Let's do it again tomorrow, fluffy." "I figure that name will have to do, until you tell me your real one."

Naruto declares with an upbeat tone to his voice. The boy could just imagine his blue eyes shining as the wind rustle through his blonde hair. A big grin plastered across his face that is so wide that he would make those strange marks on his face look more like whiskers. He could see all of that behind him, and he wished he had enough energy to put a kunai through his throat. It is five minutes later that the two boys are able to move enough to go there separate ways after one final promise is made…tomorrow they would met at the again.

It's a grudging promise by one and the hope of another as their destiny is forced apart. For that night, only one went back to a bed, while the other travels a dense forest looking for a safe spot to rest. His bandages long sense dirty from the day's activities and his mind a flare of activity as the slightly sound makes him alert with caution. He has felt that someone is following him every sense he left the other boy's side, and as a flicker of a shadow passes behind him he turns to face his destiny.

"Did you really thing you can get away with what you did?"

**Chapter Five: INTERMISSION - Complete**


	7. Chapter 6: WORD PLAY

**CHAPTER SIX – WORD PLAY**

The evening sky lit the forest on fire as varies shades and colors mesh together with the endless sea of green to make an enchanting beauty. It is truly something to see, but such a beauty isn't timeless. The darkness rapidly approaching threatens all of that, or maybe, it's the beauty before the darkness that makes it so enchanting. The knowledge that it will not last makes it all the more precious as the last fires of the day die down to become darkness.

Blood drips as the boy grits his teeth. It wasn't because of the pain, but it was because of his inability to focus. He was trying everything that he could to keep his mind on the task at hand. His right arm laying limp at his side as the bandages slip from his injury shoulder as it bled freely. His eyes watching the trees above him as the transition of evening to night cast varies shadow amongst their branches. Inside of one of those shadows, the boy knew the man was watching him and waiting to strike again.

He crouches low to the ground as the shifting of leaves above him alerts him to an unwanted presence. He throws one of the man's former shuriken back upward at the source. The weapon whipping away as the sound of it twirling can be heard clearly from his place on the ground. He waits for a soft thunk or a wet one to confirm if it hit anything, but for the moment there is nothing but the twirl of his sole shuriken. His eyes close as he listens more intensely, something wasn't right about the sound. He should have heard the shuriken hit something by now whether it's a tree or his attacker. The trees are too densely populated in this area for it to do otherwise.

He snaps them open as he thought to himself.

"_**Too many whirls, it is louder too, which meant…" **_

The boy lunges away from where he is crouch as his body does a forward roll as the tree behind him is impale with three shuriken. The attacker had sent back his own answer to the boy's movements, and as the crunching of leaves on the forest floor signal the boy's reaction, more shuriken flew. Embedding themselves in the ground behind him as the boy ends his roll by pushing off the ground with one good hand to get back to his feet. To stop moving would mean death at this moment as his eyes flicker towards the darkness behind him.

His legs spread out in a full sprint as more and more leaves crunch underneath his feet, and the sound of shuriken flew out behind him. Some only inches away as one tear at the back of his hair. Cropping it an inch shorter as the boy put more effort into his run. Suddenly a kunai is flung in front of him as his eyes see it in slow motion the twirl of a piece of paper on the handle of the blade. The boy's expression doesn't even change as he recognize what the scrap of paper meant. He had injury his arm in the first place because of it. He darts to the side as it goes off, and he is thrown through the air and smashes hard against the ground on one shoulder. His body being flipped over and over by the force of the blast as the boy is left helpless against. He is pushed along on the ground in a series of rolls and flips. It seems like forever, but the roll only last a few precious seconds as he finally regain control of himself as he twist to land on his feet. The force of the blast even then sends him skidding back a few more feet before he is in complete control. The kunai in his hand flashes in front of his body as he knocks away a few well timed shuriken that had been thrown at him in the confusion of the blast & his fall.

Panting heavily, blood runs down his face from a gash on his head. His limp right hand seems to become striped with the amount of blood that had traveled down it from the injury higher up on his shoulder. He stands there with his back against a tree. His mind racing as he sees what is in front of him, but, he has to keep his view from snapping back to something beyond it. The darkness pressing in against him all the worst as finally a voice breaks through the silences of the night.

"Wow, isn't this fun." "You last a lot longer than I thought, but then again if it had ended too quickly I would have fault that medical staffer instead of you." "Well, it's time for this to end & your life with it." "Humph, we never should have brought a monster like you to this village."

"I guess that what orders are for."

"They knew exactly what was being made on that compound, and we took your pathetic appearance hook line and sinker." "I guess, I owe that medical staffer's family my deepest apology, and I am sure that hearing what I did to you will bring them some symbol of peace."

The boy's head turns one way and then the other as he searches the trees for the source of the voice. While the man was talking the boy ready himself for what might come as a sudden soft footstep makes him look upwards to see a kunai planted just inches from his right eye. The deep blackness of his eye didn't even reflect off of the kunai surface as the man beyond it smirks. His long gray hair splashes around his shoulders as the dark garb hid him from neck to feet. The man had a dark red bandanna on his head that clash with everything that he is wearing as a long dark blade can be seen strap across his shoulders beyond that.

"IF you have any prayers say them now,"

The man declares as the boy merely stares back at him. His dark eyes showing nothing not fear, not remorse, and then, his mouth starts to move. Yet, there was no sound as the man looks on a bit confused, but then he remembered as he smirks darkly at the boy.

"You really are a bastard aren't you, I forgot, you can't talk." "One of those fuckers rammed his dick so far up your throat that it bruised your vocal cords, so, for the next three days …you are mute." "Damn, you can't even pray, and like hell I am going to wait until you can." "I guess you don't get any final words, goodbye."

The man moves to press the kunai those last couple of inches to stab through the boy's eyes and into his brain. It would only take a slight shift of his weight, but the man founds himself immobile as a deep pain surges though his veins. He looks at his body with quite a bit of force as he sees that his limbs are tangle in tendrils of red that had wrap themselves around him and sunken though his skin in varies places. The pain suddenly doubles as the man's scream. His body not being allowed to move an inch as the boy reaches up to touch the kunai only inches from his finger. A little pressure and crimson drips from the tip as the boy steps out from underneath it.

The man's eyes are wide as the blood runs like a snake up the kunai's blade and stops at the hilt. A fragment of it peels way from the surface as it starts to shape into something like a serpents head and then turns to look at the man. Its body becomes much more profound in appearance as it takes on the appearance of a blood red lizard, and then it hisses at him as suddenly he could move again and drops from the tree in surprise face first.

"What …how?"

The question dies on the man's lips as a kunai is press against his throat. The boy's eyes before him doesn't reveal anything in intention as the man see the rolls reversed for only a moment as suddenly those dark eyes go wide. The kunai drops from his fingers numbly before the boy slumps into him. A long needle is sticking out of his back, and behind him is the medic-nin, a small is plaster on his face.

"Wait until I tell the others that the invincible assassin was about to get his ass handed to him by a kid that haven't even hit puberty, yet."

The man in question merely growls as he shoves the limp body from him without a second thought. The blood that trails over his body wasn't his own, but belongs to the boy that lay there limply on the ground. He wipes a single streak of it from his arm as he looks at the boy on the ground and points.

"What the fuck was that?" "You didn't tell me he has some blood technique."

The blue hair medic smiles at him as he runs his hand through his spiky hair. He could see that the man in front of him is seriously pissed, and he would be as well if something like that happen to him. Yet, it was probably more dangerous at this point to admit that he didn't know that was going to happen either. Yet, the flicker of rustic brown eyes in front of his own, meant he better come up with some sort of answer and soon. He couldn't think of anything better so in the end a semi-truth came out.

"Okay, Makoto, I will level with you." "I had no clue he could do that shit, or else, I would have told you." "Humph, in just one day …I think we have found out more about this kid then I care to know, and I doubt we are done yet."

Makoto looks back at the medic-nin with one raised eyebrow. His silver hair flashing in the dim light of the moon as the man flicks a bit more blood off of his arm. He was waiting to see if there was more that the medic-nin had to say as he drops down to the boy's level. One gloved hand touching the sleeping boy's hair. Yet, nothing was forthcoming, and so Makoto took that time to speak.

"I thought the Commander had decided to have this little bastard exterminated after what he did in the hospital?" "In fact, I have been thinking, why he isn't the one doing this task?" "Hell even better, I am a bit surprise they let the same squad that brought him to the village deal with this instead of sending out an Anbu to put down this little prick."

The blue hair medic-nin suddenly gave a very shy look.

It was clear that two of them wouldn't be necessary to deal with a little boy, so, why is the Medic-nin here. Also, those needles were treated to knock someone out. Why would one knock out a child they wanted dead? So, the needles weren't meant for the boy …it had to be meant for him.

Makoto's eyebrow arch higher, and then he put his hand in his own palms. He never could figure out why he is the only one on the squad who is never given correct information. What did they think he is? Some ticking time bomb, okay, he did just that one time rush into a trap when they told him what was at stake, but that was one fucking mistake made long ago. Okay, maybe, not just one …he did slam his Commander's head through a wall on the mission last year, but that was only because the mission didn't detail why they had to staying in a swamp for three days without food. What idiot would accept an answer like, we aren't supposed to, but lately he hasn't given them any kind of trouble. There was no sense in hiding everything from him now is there?

Makoto takes a deep breath.

"Okay, what else are you not telling me?"

"Umm…the medical staffer that he attacked will live."

The blue hair shinobi starts as he twirls his fingers a bit. The two fingers dancing around each other, but not touching as he looks down at the ground.

"He has a few burst ribs, and is more likely going to have a scar on his chest, but he will be fine." "You really aren't supposed to kill the kid, but you know, punish him by beating his ass." "No one else would take the mission, because, everyone felt extremely sorry for him once they heard the full extent of his injuries." "You are the only one on the squad whom wouldn't care as long as the boy had commit some horrible act, so….."

Makoto took another deep breath as he looks at the blood on the ground and the discard kunai there. His fingers making a weird cracking noise as he slams one fist into the other after making sure that everything works perfectly.

"So, being that I am a cold hearted bastard I am the perfect one to send to deal with the boy, right?" "Bullshit, you guys did the names in a can drawing again, and pulled my name didn't you?" "You didn't want to do the dirty work, so you figure why not delegate, right?" "Anyone would want to kill that kid after hearing that he had taken the life of a fellow shinobi, but, no one would touch an attempt murder after hearing his back story." "Thank you, for telling me the truth." "Now run, because when I catch you I am going to kick your ass!"

The man growls as the blue hair shinobi jump into the nearest tree knowing that the Assassin wasn't going to be far behind him. It is dawn by the time they return to the hospital …the boy still unconscious drape over the medic-nin's shoulders. Though everyone who saw them had a hard time figuring out who needs the medic attention more, the boy or the medic-nin? His face is cover in so many bumps and bruises it looked like he might had fallen down a cliff face first, during the night.

"Hai, Satomi." "I guess he figure it out, huh?"

The Commander waves as the medic-nin flashes him a dangerous glare that makes the Commander drop his friendly disposition. Behind Satomi, the Assassin walks in with a big grin on his face, until his eyes met that of the Commander. A look of pure fear crosses the Commander's features as Makoto smiles broadly making the grin even bigger, and then he walks towards him. One fist smacking into another as Makoto's eyes dance with malice.

"Hahaha, Makoto, we are in a hospital remember, no fighting."

"Oh this isn't going to be much of a fight, besides, it makes it a lot easier on them if they don't have to go anywhere to pick you up."

Makoto counters back.

The sounds of screams could be heard throughout the hospital as all the patients found their peace rudely extinguish for the next thirty minutes. There would be two extra beds taken up this day as the three were placed in a single room where they could all be together. This would be effective in keeping the boy from escaping again as Makoto and Chief Medical Officer Yakushi sat in two chairs in the room. Their expression is quite serious as the Commander tries to sit up with one arm now in a cast and his left eye darken.

His smiles uncomfortably as the two stare at him.

"The child has a Kekkai Genkai."

Chief Medical Officer Yakushi breaks the silences with his comment. He looks seriously over at the boy as his chest slowly raises and falls, and the medical officer shakes his head.

"When you bring home a stray …it's really a stray isn't it." "That Kekkai Genkai is called Ketsueki gijutsu." "All Kekkai Genkai were recognized because of this one technique, and is the reason why they are called Kekkai Genkai."

He takes a moment to let his words sink in as they look at him, and he bows his head. This is getting more and more complicated with every passing second. Yakushi felt the need to rub his hand against his temple as he could feel tension from the one next to him. He could tell if he didn't continue soon things might get more difficult as he starts again.

"That kekkai genkai uses blood as its bases." "Pretty much, he can form anything out of his blood, and not only make it solid but give it a will of its own." "It's a powerful kekkai genkai, and one that was last seen amongst Amegakure." "All users are supposed to be dead, so the fact that we have one nestle in our hospital doesn't exactly fill me with glee." "I think it's best if you hide this fact, and make sure that boy doesn't display it either."

The Medical Officer declares solemnly. He looks at the men in the room one after the other, and then looks at his hands. A Kekkai Genkai comes to the user as simply as breathing. He could always try and seal it, but to block it off would be the same as chopping off a limb. To be quite honest he didn't think the boy could survive another trauma, and he didn't know any more traumatic procedures than what it would take to seal off a Kekkai Genkai.

"I am not sure if even the Hokage will be enough to keep him in your hands if they find out." "So, we do best to leave this matter just between us, and you guys figure out a way to make his technique work without it being so obvious."

He declares lightly. The Commander looked like he was about to speak with the sound of footsteps made everyone in the room go quiet. Their heads going towards the door as a boy rushes into the room. His hair is a silvery gray like Satomi, but his skin is much lighter, throwing off any chance of relations with the narrowing of the boy's nose and thinner lips. His eyes, well there is no way to see them as the glint from his glasses makes them look solid, like the glasses themselves are his eyes. In his hand is a letter as the 13 year old looks at them with steadfast eyes.

He is already wearing the headband of a Genin, and his father's eyes light up with pride at the sight of child as he thrust the letter takes the letter to read it.

"Well, this is for you guys from the Hokage." "He sends his regards about your hospital visit." "Wow, word travels really fast, let's see." "It seems that that boy will get grow up here after all, but, it's not going to be the way you think." "Once you are well, you and your squad will be starting another academy." This one is simply to be label "Roots." "It will admit only orphans that aren't a member of any bloodlines in this village, and their entire reason for existing will be to join the Anbu rank."

The look in the Commander's eyes flash wildly.

"You have got to be shitting me …they want us to raise these kids to die?" "What the fuck?" "Can we refuse?"

The Medical Officer shakes his head even as his son walks out of the room in a hurry. The medical officer holds the letters in his hand with trembling fingers. His own thoughts straying to the boy that just left, his own adopted son, but he focuses his eyes back on the letter. He isn't sure what he will do if they try to force him into the Anbu rank as he hopes to read something to let him know that the intention isn't to go that far. Relief shows on his face as he reads this next line.

"No child that has already been adopted will be affected, but all children that fit those rules, ages 6 - 18 will be admitted to the Roots program."

Yakushi stops there, because it's pretty much the end of the letter as he looks at them quite sternly.

"If you wish, you can more than likely reject it, but, who is going to protect that boy and his secret if he is taken to Roots." "If you refuse this offer, you would do better to kill him in his sleep right now."

The Commander sighs lightly at those words and then shifts his view to the outside world. His eyes focusing on the area that he knows to be his home and he thought about his wife and child. What would they say about this setup? He had told them that after this last mission he was going to retire to his home, but then he looks at the slumbering boy.

He knew what they would say.

"Send the message back, I will accept, and if my squad will agree …we will all retire to teaching the future of Anbu how to survive."

**Chapter SIX- WORD PLAY- COMPLETE**


	8. Chapter 7: BREAKDOWN

ROOTS

**CHAPTER SEVEN – BREAKDOWN**

The light and shadows, day after day the room seems to get brighter during the daylight hours, but darker during the night. The calm that fills the room at night no longer is one of peace, but like a storm approaching that threatens everything, fill with tension. A tension so thick that even in sleep you can feel it, and then comes the sun, and the room suddenly becomes so bright is can be blinding. The dark calm is replaced with cheerfulness that seems more force that anything else. Too bright, it blinds everything in an attempt to wipe away the darkness of the night before. The room becomes too loud and the tension is replaced with suffocating warmth that makes the coming darkness a relief.

This is the life of the boy as he rests in his hospital bed. It has been two weeks that he has been here, and in that time he has recover his voice & the complete usage of all limbs. Though he almost never uses them as he watch the nurse come in to change his bandages, and check beyond her to see the guard at the door. The blue hair man stands there to make sure that he goes no further than the bathroom, and he turns his head to look away. He no longer felt any kind of numbness …his body is healed, and as he looks at the window he is draw day after day to it. His hand itches, but why, he couldn't understand.

"I will take you out today."

Satomi speaks shattering the silences that hung in layers in the room. He could see that the boy spent the majority of his day looking out of the window, and he could imagine a child of his age wanting to go outside to play. To be honest, there was nothing wrong with him, and he is perfectly capable of going outside. The only reason why he is still in the hospital at all was because of his condition. The boy's traumatic experience is an open book to the squad, and everyone knew what he had gone though. Yet, in those dark eyes, it was hard to tell if the boy himself recognize it, and it is the fact that he still exhibiting signs of emotional shock that they kept a good eye on him. The numbness would eventually break, and when it did all the things that happen to him would come crashing down on his heart and mind.

If they are lucky he will break, but if they are not ….he will shatter. If he shatters, he would be useless as a shinobi, and barely functional as a person. He will crave death, and there will be little to persuade him otherwise as everyday will become harder on him to deal with. If he shatters, they will let him die, but if he only breaks they will fix what they can and start to add to what remains. There will be holes in his soul, one that can easily be accessed, but if they cover it up enough maybe it will never be tested. He will not be perfect for the role of shinobi, but he will at least have a chance. Though time is running out for that to happen, every day the project comes closer and closer to completion, and by the end of the week this child was going to be transfer over to the Roots program.

If he breaks there, there would be no hope for him.

Satomi sighs.

A part of him wanted it to happen just to get it over with, but there is a part of him that never wanted it to happen. IF the child stay as he is now, he can become a great anbu and maybe survive the horrors of the world that he will be plunge into to. No emotions, no past, no future, no hope, he will live only for the mission. One day at a time, one action at time, and maybe somehow his path will land his feet on solid ground instead of the swamp that lay around him.

"Get dress, Saitou, we will leave within a few minutes."

Satomi adds when he notice that the boy isn't moving. The name was none of their doing, but it would seem that the Commander's wife in expectation of the boy had come up with a name for him. When told that he wouldn't be come a part of her life she insisted that the boy kept the name, and since he had none of his own, other than fluffy that was given to him by the monster child. Saitou is what everyone calls him, Saitou Kato. It would have been nice if he could have really grown up under that name, but fate is never that stable or predictable.

Within a few moments, the boy is dressed. The clothing he wears is baggy, but crop to the point that it will not hinder his movements. The child still had the clothing that he had strip from a fellow child on his one outing, and though, everyone had thought more than once about taking him out to buy more clothing the fact that they were not to get attach to him made it impossible. They had already given him a name, and then in itself cause some sort of attachment. It would become a huge problem, if they cloth him too, and form too many good memories of the boy being a boy. So it was decided that it is best to leave him with what he had. If Saitou somehow managed to get more clothing on his own, they are not to really stop him, but punish him for it afterwards.

It is a small mercy.

"Where am I going?"

Saitou asks. His voice dull and dead and the question sounding more automatic than brimming with curiosity like it should be. It was probably just for conversational purpose; maybe, the boy thought that the silence in the room was too much. He could understand that feeling as his own eyes glance at the world beyond it. The window, it had to be like holding a bottle of milk in front of a baby, or cheese for a mouse. The temptation of the world beyond had to make this room seem almost suffocating at times. The un-blemish white and the predictability of the world encase in it, but still with all this in mind the Medic-nin harden his expression towards the boy. The answer, the boy already knew before it escaped the Medic-nin's mouth.

"To hell or death, the destination doesn't matter to you." "You are nothing, you don't exist, and as a shadow that is allow to remain in this world …you have no choice or will." "Do you understand?"

Saitou's response is automatic.

"Yes."

Satomi hated to say that and even more he hated to hear his answer. Yet, from the time he had regain his speech they had started him on the road to become a soul less killer. To question things, is to think about them and to think about them will lead to regret. If you regret, you will hesitate, and if you hesitate you will die, and that was the end result that they wanted to avoid the most. Thus, they had to start him to thinking about nothing, to make sure that he doesn't regain the ability to feel, and to keep his eyes always looking forward, never around or back. He would do what he is told to do for no other reason than because he is told. He will accomplish his mission, because for him there is nothing else except the mission. It is only during those missions that he will be allowed to be alive.

Saitou walks behind him as they exit the room then. He didn't question the medic-nin again as they left the hospital and the first rays of sunlight hit them. It is such a relief to get out of that room to stretch one's limbs, and the feeling of the air on ones skin. Even the crunchy of the dirt underneath ones feet is enjoyable, and he could think of anything better. Satomi is enjoying the day out as he heads for the market area, the boy trailing behind him quietly. Behind those dark eyes, it is hard to tell what he if feeling.

That day, the market place is quite crowd. It takes Satomi a moment to recognize why, but the stalls' end of the year posters festival gives him a very good hint. He smiles lightly. The end of the year festival meant that another year has gone by, and it's a time to celebrate all the good points of the year as well as a time to remember all the bad. The lives that were lost and new lives that had been born are all celebrated on this day. Satomi looks back at Saitou, and he couldn't help wondering if this year could be considered to be joyous or sad for the child. It seems like he has lost so much, but then again, maybe he never had anything to lose in the beginning and it's just their feelings being pushed on someone without.

"Fluffy! Fluffy!"

A voice calls out from behind them. The dark eye boy turns to see the blue eye boy. He is running towards them as a crowd of children look on with their faces twisted in disgust. They didn't like the boy, and a pink hair girl stares the longest as he comes up to Saitou. Naruto is smiling quite broadly as he stops just a few steps from Saitou, and the smile is quickly drop for one that can be seen as angry.

"What the hell happen to you?" "I waited all day for you to show up, and you never did."

Naruto declares and Saitou looks at him blankly. His mind searching for the promise he made, and it does come back to him, dully. He had promise to see that boy the next day. To play with him, but yet, he had ended up in the hospital after that, so he didn't get a chance to see him again. The fact that the blue eye boy in front of him had bother to remember seem kind of stupid in his eyes. It wasn't anything worth noting, and Saitou turns to look at Satomi. Though the look on that man's face wasn't one of happiness or irritation at this distraction, but more so, the cold indifferences that he was use to him having when they spoke. He turns his face away from both of them and starts to walk again, and Saitou follows after him. The blue eye boy though wasn't as willing to let it go as he rushes up to him and grab his shoulders roughly.

"What a minute, damn it, you are going to answer me."

Naruto declares and Saitou stops as he looks back at him. He didn't know what to say, but he knew if he didn't say something the boy wouldn't leave him alone. He could see the hurt in those blue eyes, but such emotion meant nothing to him. So, he recites part of what had been told to him a few moments before.

"Naruto, I can't play with you." "I don't exist, because I have no choice or will." "I have no future, I have no past, and I am just a shadow that lives only to accomplish my mission." "I didn't understand that then, so I promise you, but I have to break that promise now."

Satomi stop then. He felt a weakness in his soul that seems to tear him up inside. It was one thing to say it, and another to feel that the boy believed it, but to hear those words out loud. He wasn't so sure if he could do this anymore, if his heart would allow for him to stand there listening to his own condemning words coming out the mouth of a child who would fill his own very short lifetime with nothing. No good memories, no hope for the future, and some warp understanding of his existence. The entire concept made him sick.

"What kind of stupid answer is that?" "You can't be a shadow and you do exist, if you didn't I couldn't touch you."

Naruto declares loudly as he reaches out and touches the boy. His blue eyes now shining with a determine resolve. There was something raw and expose in those eyes as Satomi felt a flicker of something deep inside of him, for the first time he recognize that this was a child in front of him. Not a monster, not a creature from the darkest abyss, but a child like any other. Everyone over the age of 13 knew the story behind this child, his fate, what was sealed inside of him. It is the village's biggest secret, and in the same breath their deepest shame. A remainder of their helplessness and what had been sacrificed for their sake. It wasn't that they weren't grateful, but it's hard to think that the terror that tore this place apart still walked amongst them in the form of their savior's child. Yet, that boy gave voice to what Satomi truly felt inside, and the man found it hard to see the boy as the same monster.

"Yet, that is what I am?"

It lasted only for a few seconds, as Saitou answers just as monotone as ever.

His answer turning all reasoning to mush as the blue eyes child expression turns from determine to desperate as he point out again and again how it's impossible, but all Saitou does is repeats the same thing. It is at some point that Satomi felt he should step in for no other reason than the fact that they were making a scene. He had only let it go on so long because he hopes that something that the Kyuubi say would change Saitou's view. Something to ease his soul, but the boy wouldn't have any of it, and thus, Satomi steps in.

"Saitou, you have talked enough, let's go."

The boy goes quiet and as the medic-nin turn to leave. Saitou also turn to walk away leaving Naruto in the street looking depressed. The children in the stalls next to him are laughing, but only one isn't so loud. She laughs only because she wishes not to be secluded if she didn't, but her heart isn't in it. A hand going nervously into her pink hair as something happens then. A shadow falls over the boy as a hand touches the top of his head. Blue eyes turn to look into brown as that man smiles at him for the first time.

"It's okay."

By the end of the day, Satomi and Saitou returns back to the hospital with a few things. The medic-nin had gotten a small bottle of sake as well as one of the nations best selling books to read, and the child, it had become clear that he couldn't read or write though the activities of the day. So, what Saitou now carries is a small sketch book, and different brushes and pencils. It only made sense that if he is to be stuck in the hospital he should at the least learn to read and write in regular kanji as well as in varies codes. All these supplies would be needed, and thus, Satomi had gotten these things for the boy.

Satomi's mind though wasn't nearly as simplistic or calm. He couldn't help going back to the Kyuubi & Saitou's statements to each other.

_Was the boy's life any better than how it had been when they rescue him from the compound? _

The Medic-nin's mind is in turmoil with that question as the Commander now on his shift goes over how to write and read kanji with boy. He had of course approved of Saitou's learning such things once Satomi presented it to him. Thus, the two worked on creating more writing on another page, so as not to mix it up with what the Medic-nin had gone over earlier. The Commander's eyes not missing the torment that flashes across the younger man's features. Satomi doesn't go off to his own devices like normal, but kind of hangs around until nightfall. The boy finally drops off to sleep, during one of the lessons. It is then that another member of their squad comes to relieve the Commander of guard duty, and the Commander is able to really talk to Satomi.

"What's eating you, and don't start that there is nothing wrong."

Satomi after that statement doesn't even try for an excuse as he tells him everything that had taken place as they left the hospital behind them. The Commander listens to it all before he replies.

"That monster child, you shouldn't be so surprise, a monster recognizes one of it's own breed." "Though while, Saitou will be made into a monster, that kid was born one." "It is necessary for their survival and for the survival of everyone else…that you look at it at it that way." "You must tell yourself that, and try to take some of your own advice that you give the kid." "Don't look at him as a child at all, but a shadow that will exist in the darkness of Konoha's light." "His missions will be those that no one else can possible complete, and may even be impossible for him." "In which case, he will die in the shadow of Konoha like he had never existed in the first place." "I don't like it any better than you, but what other way can you possible look at it?"

The Commander declares as Satomi looks at him. The conflicting emotion on his face as Satomi remembers. The Commander had wanted to make that child his son, and the fact the child now carries his last name was a testament to how serious he was. For any of them, this had to be the hardest on him, because Satomi knew better than anyone else that the Commander was really training Saitou how to die. That meant that that boy would never know a normal life, and would only be encased in darkness for as long as he lives. It really is a huge mess that their squad is entrenched in, but really, if they quit now who would even mourn that child? Who would remember what he was, and more so, who would protect what he could become? It would be a hard road, but it was up to them to travel it.

"You are right, how many days until the Roots begin?"

Satomi asks, and his Commander smiles back with a much brighter smile. The squad keeping it together is important as he take the change in subject to mean that the medic-nin is ready to accept his role in all of this.

"Two more days, it seems the plan has been accelerated." "WE have two more days where we can be with him like this, and then, Saitou will become just another number." "A nameless person like he was before." "Satomi, I think I need a drink …do you want to come with me?"

The medic-nin nods, a drink is definitely in order.

A new day climb over the horizon when the medic-nin returns to the hospital. Hikaru, the only female in their squad sat there watching the boy's features in his sleep. She had never had the privilege of having children, and thus, the look in her eyes is almost motherly. It would be best if she only dealt with the older children once Roots is establish, because it was obvious she was starting to get attached to the boy. A hand moving a stray piece of hair out of his face as Satomi took in the sight of the sniper in what she thought was a private moment.

"Uh-hmmm."

He coughs as she moves away from him as if she had been struck. Her eyes seeking out those of Satomi as the medic-nin smile at her.

"It's kind of hard not to get attach isn't it."

He declares as she smiles politely and then gets up and walks away. Her shyness is kind of new to him, because she is normally quite volatile and aggressive in how she deals with any member of her squad. Maybe it's because he caught her being tender that she felt suddenly shy as he is left to monitor the boy. The moment that she is gone his eyes open up as Saitou looks over at Satomi.

"Why does she always do that?" "I can move the hair out of my face myself."

His complaint is lifeless, and Satomi has to sigh to express what the boy should be feeling, frustration. It can be quite annoying to deal with a kid whom talks the same way no matter what is happening to him. Whose voice never raises or falls any more than his normal speech pattern, so it's impossible to tell by anything other than his words how he should be feeling. Those words, if spoken by a normal child would have been dripping with irritation so Satomi adds that in for him as he reaches over to gather the sketch pad. If he is awake, then they will start with a few new kanji, and then Saitou will get up to get ready for the day. The medic-nin flipping open the book to see where they last left off, and he is shocked by what is in the book.

He turns the pages backwards as he sees that amongst the kanji are little pictures. Drawings, they are exceptionally well done and depict things that the kid should have no clue about. A beautiful tapestry, a sunset that has light and shadow streaming through the leaves and branches of the forest, and a darken ground with kunai and shuriken buried deep into the dirt. Satomi is in shock as Saitou simply sits by waiting for his lessons to begin. A tear slips down the man's face as it hits the paper threatening to smear the images. His hands shaking as he holds the sketches.

_How could they do this? How could they turn a child whom could create such pictures & images into a monster? How could they live with the knowledge that they would only continue what someone else had started? They would take a child that had only known pain and sorrow, and make sure that he can never feel anything else. They would turn this child into a shell and then watch as he crumbles into dirt. Can anyone like them ever be forgiven for doing something like that? Can he really do this?_

**CHAPTER SEVEN – BREAKDOWN - COMPLETED**


	9. Chapter 8: MISCALULATIONS

**CHAPTER EIGHT – MISCALCULATION**

Two days quickly pass, and with the falling of the sun the Anbu's Roots extension came into existence. It was secretly the bloodiest day in Konoha's history as hundreds of children disappeared over night without a trace. The Commander sitting on top of the highest building in the village made sure of that as the Anbu went about their work of collecting the children. A dark crow perch on his shoulder as it caws only a few times to announce that the deed was done. They both disappeared in a hail of feathers after that. He had wiped away the existences of all the children from the minds and hearts of those that came within contact of them. The dawn would come, and the village would be same, with no one thinking it odd that there is an overabundance of children's clothing and more than a few extra beds. It was the way that the Hokage had asked it to go, and a silent mercy to all whom had gotten to know them, the children of the shadows.

Blood spurt free of its fleshy prison as a scream followed afterwards. In the darkness, another problem was being solved as the squad watches with deep interest at what was going on below. It had become painfully clear that the academy couldn't possible house all the children that fit the requirements, so a solution had been decided upon by the Commander. It was one that made Satomi sick to his stomach, but, really after what had been done to the village there was no going back for any of these children. He watches as another one falls to the crushing teeth and deadly pincers of the giant bug. In the forest of death, all the children had been deposited for their first test & for many, their final test. The strongest, the ones that made it to dawn would become a part of the academy, and the others would simply disappear in the darkness.

Saitou wasn't exempted from this trial as he walked under the cast shadows of the forest. The moonlight making his skin shines with an unhealthy pallor. Blood wet his face, but it didn't all belong to him as he cast his eyes dangerously through the darkness. He had been attacked earlier by a feline beast, but its speed had been enough for it to get away from him. It was something that he knew would be problematic, but to stand still long was to invite more attackers. He had moved on even though he knew he was being stalked. He could hear the echoing of the leaves crunching as he rushed through them, a sure sign that something was hot on his heels, but the trees that hung above him was the perfect playground for the feline. For Saitou, it was a hindrance as he looks for open ground to face the beast.

He was so preoccupied by his search that he almost missed it. A slight scuffing of claws as Saitou brought his sword above his head, and twists his body to the side all in one move. The feline beast had tried to take him from above by jumping from the trees, and had ended up stabbing itself on the upraised sword in exchange. Saitou's quick movements forced the blade to carve through the entrant point in the chest and across its ribs to the side as the feline's body hit the ground with a wet thud. His blade trapped in the beast's side as Saitou stared at it. The feline was twice his size, and three times his own bulk. If he hadn't moved out the way, dead or not, the feline beast would have crushed him. He put his foot on the corpse as he pulled backwards to try and free the trapped sword, but a hot breath on his neck made him stop. He had messed up as he took another good glance at the beast in front of him.

This one wasn't wounded. It wasn't the same as the one that chased him as he glances over his shoulders to see the feline beast's teeth near his head. Saitou knew he wasn't going to make it out of this one as the feline's muscles bunch underneath it and he grip the sword's hilt much more tightly. By the time he managed to turn around, the beast would be on him and he would be dead. Yet there was nothing else for him to do, no other way to go, and so, it was an automatic movement. He felt the wind whistle pass him as the beast close the gap between them, but instead of it biting into him the beast pushed him to the side as it stumble forward and fell upon it's partner's head dead. A kunai sticking out of its right eye all the way to the hilt as Saitou stared at it. He wasn't going to die.

He cast his eyes upwards to see another boy around his age in the trees. He smiles lightly at Saitou before climbing down with a grace that seemed kind of force. Almost as if to confirm that thought, the boy slipped to fall on his rear. Rubbing it sorely he looks over at Saitou and blurts out.

"Well aren't you going to say thank you?"

His silver hair shone weirdly in the moonlight as he stood up and then approaches Saitou, but Saitou said nothing even when he stood right in front of his face. The boy stares at him quite intensely as he had Saitou in height by a good foot, and then places his hand on the black hair boy's head.

"Too scared huh?" "Well that was a close one, so I guess I understand." "So, I guess I will let you get away with not thanking me for now, besides, you took out the one pursuing me so that sort of makes us even."

He declares as Saitou finally made his move as he pushes the boy's hand off of his head with a rude slap. The boy blinked lightly at what would have been seen as rude behavior, but, said nothing. He watches as Saitou pulls his blade free of the feline's carcass and then wipes it clean on the grass. At this time, the boy had figured out that the silent treatment wasn't so much that the boy was too scared to talk, but that he didn't want to talk to him. That pissed him off as he hisses.

"Don't ignore me, I just saved your life, bastard."

Saitou looks back at him. He could already tell that this was going to get worst if he continued to ignore the boy. He could feel the anger radiating from the boy and to be quite frank, he was too tired at this point to want to take up a new fight. The boy somehow seemed much fresher, and thus, it real would be a waste of his remaining energy.

"Thank you, but can you quiet it down." "Noise will attract more of those beasts to fight."

The boy's eyes went wide as he got his thank you from Saitou as well as why the dark hair boy hadn't seemed to want to talk to him. He blushes lightly, because Saitou was right, he was making too much noise. The boy twirls a kunai around his finger in his embarrassment as Saitou said nothing more and starts forward again. The boy following at his side, and Saitou didn't say anything against it. In Saitou's mind, two were after all better than one, and worst came to worst he was sure he could out run the boy. The two finished the trial together and a bond budded that night that would later make them brothers.

The coming morning brought to light the survivors. In all, there are a total of twenty that survive the forest, which was better than the Commander's eight and lower than Satomi's fifty. Though the squad no longer showed it, they were relieved to see that Saitou was amongst the survivors, a boy with silver hair now hover over him protectively as the other children seemed to be in shock or deep remorse over their survival. It wasn't anything pretty to look at, but the Commander wasn't going to give them time to wallow in self pity. He stood before them, and put it all out for them to understand. They no longer belonged to themselves, and their lives were no longer theirs to do with as they wish. They had become a part of an organization that for the most part didn't exist, and in the same breath, now they no longer existed as well. The past, the future, it was no longer for them, and some of the children cried while others looked defiant. It gave them something else to think of other than the horrors of the forest.

Thus, the commander didn't care about their opinions about it all. It wasn't like they were being given a choice. They would all be condition to be the perfect shinobi or they would die in their attempt. He didn't look behind him as he left the children with their thoughts, because he knew he would see the disapproving face of Satomi there. The medic-nin was soft, but there needed to be one person on their team that wasn't a cold-blooded killer. Satomi was it, so he couldn't expect him to be perfectly on board with what he plans to do. He could only hope that the medic-nin wouldn't abandon the squad because of his moral conflict.

It was later in the evening when the children recited the motto for the first time, and then were separated permanently into three main age groups. Each one headed by one of the squad members who would be in charge of their development as well as giving them their first new name. It wouldn't be their last, but it was a start as they were forced to stand through the humiliation of the new name as well as punishment if they forgot to use it when addressing each other. Makoto was the leader of Saitou's group, which ranged from ages five thru nine, and for the remainder of the day they were at the target range. Kunai in hand as Makoto calls them up one by one to take their shot at the target.

"Come on Fluffy, it's your turn."

Makoto calls out to Saitou as the boy stands there kind of lazily. He had so far not missed his target yet, and the silver head boy behind him was smiling like a Chester cat. If Saitou manages to hit the bull's eye one more time, then he would get to sit out the rest of the practice. It was Makoto-sensei's deal, but so far only Saitou had been able to accomplish it. This was going to be Saitou's third time if he was successful with the last throw. He was only one kunai away as he flicks it effortlessly in the middle, and everyone stood by in silences. The silver hair boy cheered as Makoto replies quite strictly.

"Hey, Hyper shut up!" "Fantastic job, Fluffy, at least I get to deal with one shinobi in this group of mewling kittens." "Take your break, the rest will finish off their individual throws before I line them up to practice on the targets." "Thirty throws right arm, then thirty on your left, I am going to improve your accuracy."

The silver hair boy smirked lightly. Hyper was Makoto's name for him as he ran his fingers though his silver hair and Saitou went to take a seat. A small backpack from their rooms were on Saitou's back as he sat down at the base of a tree and pulled a sketch book and a brush from it. It would seem that with nothing better to do he was going to draw, while everyone else was continuing their kunai practice. It was to last twenty minutes as Makoto choose that time to go off to handle business of his own, which made it independent practice. Though everyone continued to work, there was no longer any pressure to perform their best so some of the kunai thrown were quite sloppy. The students were more occupied with gossiping at this time as their voice drop and their eyes stray over to Saitou. An angry look was on some of the children's face as Hyper took note, but didn't say anything. He instead focuses more on what he is doing as he takes full advantage of the time. Twenty minutes pass quickly, and they were set afterwards to doing sprints in a straight line. A kunai is being passed in between them from the back of the line towards the front. The kunai never reaching its final destination since the one whom passed the kunai would then sprint to the front of the line. This was to be preformed flawlessly, but there is always someone whom fell behind or dropped the kunai. In which case, the punishment was carried out immediately as the student would drop out of the line and give ten quick push ups before joining at the top of the line. In a situation like that, it depends heavily on the actions of the one behind you, and Hyper didn't miss the jealousy action of some of the children then. They would make it a point to pass the kunai sooner than they should or drop it away from Saitou's hand to try and make him drop out of the line.

Most of the time it was unsuccessful, but there was one or two times that they managed to make Saitou miss it. It was obvious that the black hair boy wasn't going to make any friends amongst the group, and considering Saitou didn't try that hard anyway it didn't seem to be much of a lost to the boy. Hyper though didn't see it that way at all. The most malicious of intents can start off as a little bit of jealousy. Hyper didn't want to see the boy hurt, so he kept a good eye on him throughout the rest of the exercises.

Nightfall came, and their tiny group of six children was allowed to rest. It wasn't an easy sleep like the one they knew before as they lay in separate rooms trembling in the dark. Their fear that if they closed their eyes they would wake up in the forest again with the sounds of death and the sight of blood all around them kept them awake. It was as the moon reached it's apex that Saitou would find a knock at his door. Saitou unlike the others were sleeping quite peacefully at that time, and he wasn't so happy at the intrusion. He sat up quickly, and fumbling a bit to get his pants at least on him as he went to the door. He wasn't expecting Silver hair to be there as the boy looks at him with big eyes. His pillow held tightly in his arms and he smiles lightly.

"Hey, ummm…were you asleep?"

Saitou looks at him quite oddly. Why would he come so late at night just to ask that, and he was planning to send him away when Silver hair then quickly stated.

"Well that was a stupid thing to ask wasn't it?" "I kind of don't want to sleep by myself tonight." "Can I sleep with you?"

Saitou looks over at his bed and then back at the boy in front of him. It wasn't meant for two, but considering their size they could fit. Thus, Saitou thought harder about the pros and cons of the boy sleeping with him. If he sent the silver-haired boy away he might not get enough rest, and if the boy didn't get enough rest then his performance will suffer. If his performance suffers, then it might get everyone in trouble tomorrow. It was in everyone's best interest if he let him sleep with him, and thus Saitou nods.

The silver-hair boy's face spread into a huge smile as Saitou merely got out of his way. The boy crawling onto the bed as Saitou follows afterwards. If Saitou had thought more about the silver-haired boy's hyper nature he might have turned him away, because the silver-hair boy seemed quite intent in having a conversation with him. Saitou placed a pillow over his head, but that didn't drown it out as he glares at silver hair and pretty much threaten to send him away to get him to stop. Though that was really only a pause as Saitou started to drift off to sleep only to have a hand shake his shoulder's lightly and the older boy staring into his face.

"Hey, Fluffy, you aren't sleep yet are you?"

"Well, that is pretty obvious if you are shaking me and talking to me."

Saitou stated quite flatly. He had obvious miscalculated about letting hyper sleep in his room.

"Hey don't get mad." "I just wanted to tell you something." "You know, you kind of remind me of my brother before he died." "He was just like you, so silent and stuff." "Even though I am older, he was always better at me at almost everything."

Hyper flops back down on his side once he is assured that Saitou is listening to him. His hazel eyes focus on the ceiling as he continues to talk. Saitou turns his back to him, but Hyper knew that Saitou was still listening.

"I hated him, and I thought he hated me too." "He used to hate it when I tried to hug him, and would shove me away." "My dad, humph, he seemed to worship the ground that my brother walked on." "Though I am the older brother, my dad always got him new clothes and I got the hand me down." "I was jealous, and I treated him badly." "It wasn't until the raid that I found out how stupid I was." "My brother saved my life and got seriously injured in the process." "I asked him to tell me why he saved me." "I told him I thought he hated me, I confess my jealousy, and the fact that he never wanted to touch me." "He told me he loved me and that he was scared to touch me." "Father always touched him before he hurt him, and he didn't want to hurt me." "I was shocked to hear that." "To keep a secret like that must have been painful and awfully lonely." "After he died, I was upset at him for not telling me sooner." "I could have made my dad stop, I could have told someone, but when I look back on it now he told me about it but not so much with words but with his actions."

"He wanted me, he wanted someone to notice, that was why he gained an over achieving attitude." "The more attention, the more likely it was to be discovered, I guess." "His hatred of being touched was a major clue." "Finally, I should have recognized it from his dead expression, the same one you wear, Fluffy."

Hyper replies softly as Saitou listen lazily. He knew the story was at its end and that eventually, Hyper would run out of things to say. Saitou was waiting on it as suddenly he felt the boy's hand wrap around his own and squeeze it tight.

"If you need someone to talk to, I will be right here for you, Fluffy."

Saitou could feel his eyes on the back of his neck, and could almost feel him holding his breathe in anticipation. Though, Saitou didn't want to think about such things, not now or ever, and thus he turns quickly and with one quick kick sent Hyper off the side of the bed.

"I am telling you to stop breathing on my neck & go to sleep."

He replies monotone as Hyper looked at Saitou from the floor. The boy was taken by surprise by being shoved off the bed, but since he wasn't being kicked out of the room, he merely smiled. He scurried back into the bed and with Saitou's back once more in front of him turns so that his back was against Saitou's.

"Fine, I will wait, Nii-chan."

Saitou was about to response back, but sudden the quietness in the room indicated that Hyper was finally drifting off to sleep. There was no point in ruining the quiet now as Saitou relaxed. He closed his eyes then as he thought over the past events. He realized he had really miscalculated with Hyper. He should have made him leave him along in the forest, and now, he let him into his room when he should have sent him away. The boy just calling him little brother, thus, it was very unlikely that he could get rid of him now. He really had miscalculated badly with him.

**CHAPTER EIGHT - MISCALCULATION- COMPLETE**


	10. Chapter 9: CONFLICT

ROOTS

**CHAPTER NINE –CONFLICT **

In a room that consisted of no more than a bed and bathroom, two children snored lightly. One deep in sleep and the other grip in a nightmare that made sweat bubble up from his skin. His eyes press shut as if by force as a whimper escaped his throat and he squirm lightly in the bed bunching the sheets together tightly. A hand reaches out to his, and the sounds come to an end as a peaceful look falls upon the boy's features. His nightmare receding into the darkness as the hand grips the other tightly, but neither boy had rouse from their sleep. The need of one so great that even in his dreams the other could feel it, and with their hands locked together the two spent the rest of the night together.

_It was the beginning of their bond._

Saitou woke up before the first rays of dawn broke through the sky as an internal clock set by years of abuse chime in his head. His body though heavy didn't hesitate as he moves to sit up only to find one hand hamper. His fingers threaded through the hand of another as he looks over at Hyper. The boy snoring lightly as he lay on his back, with his arms thrown out wide as if he was trying to hug someone. Yet, he had his fingers threaded so tightly in Saitou's own that even though the boy had released his hold …he would have to pry open Hyper's fingers to get his own free. Saitou sighs lightly, and then stares at the one whom shared his bed.

His eyes closed, Saitou couldn't see the soft brown that he knew to be within, as an expression that can't be call anything but peaceful was etch on Hyper's face. The boy's silver hair spilling over the pillow, which contrasted heavily with his creamy skin, but sort of, matches his gray pajamas. Saitou's eyes trace their way down the sleeping form as he took note of Hyper's chest rising up and down slowly as the clothing became sheets. For a moment, Saitou thought about moving the sheets around so that he could continue his examination of the boy beside him, but as he remembers the hand still trapped, it was deem not worth it. Yet, even as he works on freeing himself, he couldn't help noticing the differences between the slumbering boy at night and the hyperactive boy in the daylight. He seems almost angelic like this, and if it wasn't for the trail of drool that ran down Hyper's face, Saitou would have thought of trying to sketch him like he is now.

Yet, the drool was there, and Saitou had no wish of sketching him as he sat up lightly. His eyes well adjusted to the darkness as he gather his things, and put on the same shirt as before. His hand even in the dark easily finds the discarded backpack on the floor as he loops one strap over his shoulder. Saitou had plans of being back before the other boy rouse as he opens the door and step out of it, but it would seem that Hyper had other plans. The tight stretch of wire against his leg was a brief warning before it broke, and a slight clacking sound could be heard above his head as Saitou would look up to see that two kunai were hitting up against each other. His hand moves blindingly fast as he snaps the wire in two and then catches all three kunai expertly before they could hit the ground. Though it was too little too late, as a voice declares sleepily behind him.

"Nii-chan, where are you going?"

_A bond that feels more like the beginning of shackles to one of them. _

Time passes quickly, days became weeks, and weeks became a month, and things changed and some things remain the same. Saitou still had Hyper as a bed partner even a month later, and Makoto was still the main sensei for their group. Yet, now, he was no longer the only sensei, as the students found themselves not only having to remember the names given to them by Makoto in the morning, but, the names given by Hikaru before lunch, Satomi after lunch, and finally the mysterious final squad member, Kazana, near the end of the day. It meant there are more chances for slips up, and the punishment for the mistake is becoming more severe. The other day, a girl was struck across the face for the mistake, and the day before that, a boy was commanded to do a hundred squat thrusts. There seem to be more of a focus on their remembering the fake names, and not screwing that up, like something was about to happen. The tension caused the students to act a bit more harshly towards each other, and already being an outsider, the bullying became less conceal with Saitou.

This day, Saitou and Hyper stood before Hikaru as the rest of the students work on forming their own bunshin no jutsu or shadow clone. Her hands were on her hip as she glares at them dangerous with one sporting a new bruise on his cheek and the other with reddish knuckles. They had gotten into a fight during the mentor switch as Hyper had defended Saitou when one of the other children had decided that he had enough of Saitou's cold attitude. The dark hair boy as usually didn't seem interest in the fact that they were teasing him, because, he had been instructed days earlier when it came to Satomi's attention to not fight them. Thus, he didn't react, and this only made the bully angrier at not getting a response.

The bully had finally reached the point where he couldn't stand the futility of his gestures anymore, and though they were fully aware that Saitou was quite dangerous. He had struck Saitou in the face. The boy merely staring at him, but it was Hyper that pounced. The silver hair boy had had enough of their teasing, and that hit was more than enough to start the fight. Though, the bully had no plans of fighting fair anyway, and Saitou had gotten dragged into the fight by sheer numbers. Hikaru's arrival had broken it up, but, she had of course seen the culprits long before they had a chance to act innocent again. Wishing to give the smallest party first shot to explain she called Saitou currently named dog and Hyper currently named rabbit before her to speak.

"Those bastards were picking at Dog again." "Ox over there even went so far as to hit him."

Hyper declares loudly while pointing a finger and Ox shouts back.

"He is a lie." "Mia can tell you the truth, because she was with me."

Ox declares, and a sudden tension springs up as his peers immediately recognize his mistake. Though it had come so naturally that the boy himself doesn't even realize he had done something seriously wrong as Hikaru smiles lightly.

"I want you two to go back into the line." "Since, you know so much, Ox, please come forward and explain the entire situation to me."

Without even a bit of hesitation, Ox walks forward as Saitou & Hyper walks pass him towards the line. Though normally they would have gone to the end of the line, Saitou instead heads for the gap that Ox had left behind, beside Mia. The girl looks positively white in the face, because, she understood the mistake that was made. In fact, she understood how much graver it was than any others before it. Ox hadn't just called out the wrong name, but her true name. It wasn't just forbidden for others to say it, but, even the owner of the name couldn't refer to themselves by their true name. It no longer existed, so for another student to know it meant that she had to have told him. It meant that she was still holding onto her name, and that meant she would be punished severely. Mia could already see how things were going to play out, and she was on the verge of tears when she felt something slice her leg thinly. Her face still forward as she glance down briefly to see a kunai pierce through the back of her pants leg and into the dirt as if to pin her down. Dog turns at her side as he was soon facing forward, but, she didn't miss it. He presses himself into her side, and she felt the sharp point from his pocket.

A kunai, Mia shiver deeply.

Mia could only imagine that Dog was taking his revenge then, but his blank expression only look forward as Hikaru enlighten Ox of his mistake. The boy went pale as she smirks at him. A kunai flashes in her hand as it was suddenly press against his throat. Ox squirm uncomfortably as the blade suddenly became charged with chakra, and gave off a soft reddish glow. They had all seen her do this before, the kunai will now not only go through his flesh, but easily through bone and sinew. He was going to be beheaded, or at least end up with a very unique hole through his neck. This is a serious situation.

"Well, I know, for a fact that not only is that not the name I gave out, but that's a true name." "Someone hasn't been following the motto, and that is severe enough for me to kill you." "Though, I guess with all these switching of names it's expected that you would mess up, but, I can't go lightly on you for this one." "Thus, I will have to take it out on your body." "So, let's see, should I chop off a finger, an eye, oh hell, why not an entire arm?" "You did mess up big this time, but maybe, I should give you a chance at redemption." "A single glimmer of hope, but, I will require a sacrifice on the part of your friend this time." "Mia, if you want to save him simply step forward and I will leave his body intact."

Hikaru declares, and almost as if on cue one boy dubbed Rooster open his mouth to make a statement. Hikaru's unoccupied hand slice through the air once, and the boy's mouth just hung open. A kunai had passed within a few inches of his scalp as his hair had been parted by the move. A big smile came on the woman's face as everyone seems more resolved to look forward without saying a word. Their face still revealing multiply expressions, except for Saitou, his face was as emotionless as always. He focuses more straight ahead and beyond her as Hikaru made her statement.

"No talking, no gestures, I just want the guilty party to step forward." "That is all, and any further noises or useless movements will result in a kunai being put through your head." "Also, I already know who Mia is, so no substitutes will be allowed." "Now, all the rules of this little game are on the table, Mia, kindly step forward."

Hikaru declares, and as Mia shift her weight the kunai digs deeper into her side as she felt the point through the fabric. It is brief, a warning, as it retracts back to being outside of her clothing. Saitou didn't look over at her, but he makes his intentions well known. If she moves forward he would kill her. The kunai embedded through her pants leg is enough to make sure she won't get out of his range before he can accomplish this as she can feel the heat from her situation radiating over her. To open her mouth is to invite the wrath of the kunai from Hikaru-sensei, and to try and move forward is sure death due to Dog. The boy was surely out for revenge, and instead of open hostility he was taking complete advantage of this situation to get rid of a bully. She felt a drop of sweat on her neck. The thought to burst forward and hope that Hikaru-sensei will save her came to mind, but then again, a month ago they had been dropped in the forest of death. There would more than likely be no rescue from her, so she was stuck in a life or death situation. She could lose her life and maybe save Ox, or she could sit back and watch the boy maimed.

"Okay, maybe we need a little countdown here." "I am starting from 10, so here goes …10, 9…"

Hikaru announces as Mia's face becomes paler and tears brim in her eyes. Ox glares at her then as he couldn't from there see her predicament, and of course couldn't understand her hesitation. The kunai still only inches from his neck keeps him from daring to call her out, and the countdown continues onward as Mia's close her eyes. Ox's eyes widen, that was the same as telling him that she wasn't going to come to his rescue. His body trembling slightly as Hikaru's kunai went upwards slowly as it seem to glide over the skin of his neck, and slide along his jaw line up to his right eye.

"3, 2, 1"

Ox screams loudly as the kunai is swift. His right eye was gone, and the blood ran down his face as he plasters his hand over the spot where his eye had been. Trying to hold the blood within his body as it pours out around his fingers, Ox is trembling like a leaf as he goes down to his knees. His body going into semi-shock as he tries to get his mind around the fact that this had actually happen to him. The pain radiating so strong that the child actually is sick all over the grass, but he wasn't alone as the sound of retching can be heard coming from some of the children behind him.

"Go see, Satomi-sensei." "He will make sure the wound won't become fatal."

Her voice has no remorse in it at all as Hikaru wipes the remains of her deed in the grass. The trail of blood clashes with the green there as Ox crumples into the grass in a heap. The pain was too much as he collapses, and Hikaru could only shake her head.

"Wimp, Mia, take this boy to the infirmary."

The command is swift, and the girl snaps her eyes open at the calling. Tears run down her face the moment that she sees Ox lying in the grass. His blood pooling underneath his face, and as she starts to move forward a quick jab remind her of her situation. She no longer felt so restricted as she level a glare at Saitou.

"Aren't you happy yet?"

She hisses, and Saitou stabs her lightly as the kunai pierces the skin. He doesn't this time remove it as she goes silent. The boy's dark eyes look over into the girl's violet ones, and Mia shivers. There was nothing in his eyes, no answer, no rage, nothing. It was as if those dark pools were a black wall. Or a darkness, that could absorb all light without a second thought. It was frightening, and somehow she felt, he would push the kunai much more deeply if she didn't calm down. Right now, it was like a pin prick, she knew it was drawing blood, but it wasn't anything that wouldn't be practically healed by morning. Yet, the kunai was still in the wound and it wouldn't take much to push it further …deeper …make it more deadly. Mia went rigid.

"Damn, it seems like you are smarter than I thought, Mia." "I couldn't trip you up even then."

Hikaru confessed after a few minutes. She looks over at the bleeding boy and sighs lightly as she calls out horse and rooster. The girl and boy duo are at her side in an instant looking quite sick. They had been the two to lose it, and considering their appearance and stench she had chosen them for the task at hand.

"Take him to the infirmary, and stop and clean yourself on the way back."

The two don't need further bidding as they both worked together to get Ox off the ground, and quickly rush him to the infirmary. It kind of made their sickness seem phony how they seem to have recovered so quickly, but then again, the thought of getting away from Hikaru-sensei at the moment would have given flight to anyone's feet. She didn't seem at all disturb by what she had done as she glares at her three remaining students.

"Take a few minutes off, we will start on our chakra control when Rooster and Horse return." "I will send for you then, until then, you are free to do as you please."

Hikaru declares as she sits down in the grass only inches from where the pool of blood had gather and then flops onto her back. Her eyes looking upward as she seems to have decided to do some cloud watching during that time. Saitou removes the kunai from Mia's side then, and then breaks into a full sprint from the line. Mia would have been right on his heels then, if she didn't have to stop to free herself before giving chase. The black kunai being flung to the side effortlessly as Hyper did not miss the glint of the black metal. He was after all, the only one left. Even if he hadn't seen the kunai, Hyper wasn't willing to be left alone with Hikaru-sensei, and thus, sprints after them both. In a matter of seconds, the female sniper is alone as she closes her eyes. She could only hope that the classes wouldn't shift before Rooster and Horse return.

Saitou ran only far enough to be out of Hikaru's immediate sight and hearing before he turned to face her. Mia's kunai clashes quickly with his own as she glares at him with hatred in her eyes. She is interested in killing him this time, and Saitou could see it. The two kunai stood perfectly even between them, with both children pushing their strength forward. Their eyes violet glaring into black, but only one was alive with a fire.

"Why, you bastard?" "Why wouldn't you let me help him …I know he is an ass, but no one deserves that!"

She screams and Saitou takes that time to slide his kunai further down the blade. Letting it slip lower towards the part where the kunai would begin to come back to its hilt, he pushes it upwards suddenly changing the momentum of their forces and wrenching the kunai out of her hand to stick into the overhanging branches above them. The great tree spread out to their side, is the only one harm by the action as Hyper comes into view as they both separate with a quick jump backwards. Mia going for her second kunai, while Saitou prepares to defend with his current one as the girl throws it. With ease he deflects the move, and then puts away his own kunai as Mia screams again. She charges forward with her bare hands, but, is grasp tightly just underneath his arms by Hyper. The boy digs his heels into the ground.

The sudden stop of her charge isn't enough to calm her down. She looks over her shoulder at Hyper, and then starts to thrash around in his arms. Screaming her head off, she tries to twist around where she can strike at Hyper. Her elbow aiming for his shoulder as Hyper puts his head against the small of her back to keep her from causing him too much harm.

"Let me go, stop defending that bastard." "I am going to kill him." "I am going to fucking rip his head off! "Just let me go." "That mother fucker wouldn't even let me save my friend."

Hyper held onto her as she thrashed, but time wasn't on her side. She was emotionally drained anyway, and the rage was quickly sapping what little strength her emotional state was giving her. The reality of what had happen was sinking in a lot faster as the hatred burned itself out of her system. She suddenly slump against Hyper as she drops to her knees taking the boy with her as he doesn't even try to hold her weight. Her eyes filled with tears as she looks up at Saitou.

"Why?" "Why didn't you let me go to him?"

Hyper suddenly understood as he looks over at Saitou. The boy had his back against the tree at this point and his sketchbook in his lap. His hand fishing around for a brush as he doesn't even seem to hear her question and seem even less concern about the awkward situation they were in. If Dog had been the reason that Tiger didn't come to Ox's defensive, then even Hyper felt a little sick. No sort of revenge should ever go that far, not even considering the constant bullying that Dog dealt with as Hyper prepares to ask the same question as Mia.

"You would have been killed."

Saitou interrupts him as his eyes are looking not at Mia, but at Hyper. Saitou could tell, things were about to get worst, and if he left Hyper too long with those thoughts he would never get any sleep at night. Though, what he said didn't seem to be enough of an answer as Hyper's eyes stare into his own, and Saitou thought about simply getting up and heading for another spot. It wasn't like Mia was a threat to him, and less while she is an emotional wreck. Yet, Hyper was another situation entirely and would be problematic.

"Hikaru-sensei asked for a sacrifice." "She would have been true to her word, and Mia would have been killed." "Besides, if you listen in class, we were told numerous times that to take on your true name is to die." "Those names belong to people that were never rescued, that died in their villages, instead of being brought back to Konoha." "We don't exist anymore, so those names no longer can fit us, because our true name belongs to the dead."

Saitou watch as Mia's eyes went wide. Her tears stop as some inkling of realization spark there. The mistake that would have been made wouldn't have just belonged to Ox after that point, and she was a little shock to think that Dog would go through the trouble to save her.

"Though, don't mistake what I did for kindness." "I knew that Hikaru-sensei would be pissed after killing Mia, and would have had us doing chakra exercises for the rest of the day."

"I am not good at Chakra Exercises."

Even Hyper's mouth drops at that last comment. It was true, Saitou sucked big time at chakra. His ability to manipulate or even hold it was lousy at the best of times, and one of the only areas that he could easily be best in. Yet, to go so far as to stop Mia from being executed only to avoid having to do it was something that made even Hyper put his head into his hand. Though, that meant that he no longer held onto Mia as the shuffling of grass had her off the ground and lunging at Saitou.

The girl's eyes burning with hatred.

"You think that was a fucking joke."

A quick flurry of movements, and the girl found her face ram into the tree with her arm pulled roughly behind her. Her eyes were once more leaking as Saitou held her against the tree with his elbow press into the small of her back. He took the arm and presses it against her back lower and keeps his weight crushing the girl's frame into the wood. If she had been a few years older or a bit bigger, this scuffle might have ended differently. His free hand still holding onto the kunai plunges it into the wood as he pins both the girl's shirt as well as the sleeve of the one arm he had folded across her back to the wood. It would take her a while to get free, and that was all that matter to Saitou at the moment as he steps away.

The girl is now in a frenzy shouting at him.

"So, all of this was over some fucking whim you had, and where the fuck did it come from?" "Sensei started off saying she didn't want any deaths, so what you are saying is complete, bullshit." "You plan that from the moment you got back into line, and before Hikaru-sensei said anything." "You knew you could play like you did it to help me, but I know the truth." "This is all one big joke to you." "You did it for revenge, and I promise you, you won't be the only one to get it."

She starts to laugh hysterically, and Saitou didn't think anything of gathering his things to find another place to go. Hyper follows after him, with only a stray glance back at her. How much of what Dog had said …had been logical reasoning or more of an estimation of the situation. To predict the movements of another, maybe, in the end it had simply been revenge, but Hyper shook his head. His Nii-chan wasn't that deep. What he said was probably all that crossed his mind, and the results were simply his logic. If anyone was to be blamed for the situation at hand, it wasn't Dog, but Ox. Ox had after all been the idiot to blurt out Mia's name. Then again, Mia had been the one to originally break the rules by telling him.

Cause and Effect, Hyper couldn't help, but wonder how the cause of Saitou's interferences will affect their lives in the days that would pass. Hyper knew for a fact, that it had already changed the status of Mia and Ox from bullies to enemies. There would be plenty of blood lost between them if they weren't careful.

Yet, to Saitou this didn't matter. The boy sat down in the grass, and started to sketch as Hyper sat down beside him with his back to the new tree. The breeze curls around the grass beside them, and the same effect is mirrored in the grass surrounding Hikaru. She stares at the clouds as the blood unknown to her spread. The wind pushes the blood as it darts amongst the base of the stalks of grass, until finally it sinks into the ground. A crow far above her caws, as the woman sits up. She groans lightly to herself, it would seem that she had picked a really bad time to be a hard ass.

Her hands fly over the hand signs.

Chapter nine – CONFLICT- Complete


	11. Chapter 10: SOUL EATER

**CHAPTER TEN- SOUL EATER**

_This was the beginning of the end._

_Swift movements in the darkness ...a raid ...it wouldn't occur to those that rested in the village that anyone could get over the wall. In the darkness of the night, a flare of light would bring everything sleeping back to the land of the waking, and for one individual it would end his dream. The light that brought him out of the shadows, the sun that drove away the nightmares would vanish into darkness as the world he knew crashed around him. And it would give rise to something truly horrifying ...as a sacrifice would be made._

_This was the start of nothing ...and everything. _

Hikaru-sensei cursed loudly.

They would be the last to assemble, but the summon had been for the entire team so she had to wait for the entire team to assemble ...as Rooster, Tiger, Horse, Rabbit, Dog, and Ox stood before her. The last one looked like he was about to drop at a moments notices, but, for once she would over look his slouching. Afterall, he was showing remarkable stamina by just being able to stand with the lost of an eye a couple of hours prior. It was clear that he was trying to seem stronger, because, the weak and the useless are killed here. And, he now believed that she would kill him ...it would make him a better shinobi in the end if he can managed to let his new focus turn from fear and hatred to determination.

Her eyes couldn't help falling on Dog, their Saitou.

He would never be at risk of such a thing. Emotionally dead, he had been beaten, starved, raped, and stabbed before he would have been old enough to join the academy at 7 years of age. A child that had been rescued from death, and living in darkness long before they brought him here. This was nothing new to him, and everyone of his sensei knew it. He would never be anything more than a killer, and unlike the other children, have never known the light to long for it.

She would bite her lip lightly as she turned her eyes away from him.

They couldn't save him from his fate, only prolong it or end it.

Nothing had changed from the day he was rescued.

She would take a deep breathe before she spoke. She knew every eye was on her, and that every student was quietly awaiting her words. They wouldn't easily cross her again, or at least, not until they thought they could take her in combat. Until that time, they would jump when she said jump, bark when she said bark, and if the did their job right ...never gain the mind of their own that would make it possible for them to every fight back ...even when they become capable.

"WE got our first mission today, and have been told to assemble with the others at the entrance to our little compound. We are late, but, lucky for us ...our Commander is almost always late anyway, so we shall arrive on time."

"Head out."

She would throw her arm out wide as each child knew where the meeting place was and would sprung towards the area. Disappear from in front of her eyes ...in a way that only shinobi could, even the weaken Ox would be gone before her arm dropped back to her side.

They were making soul-less killing machines ...all she could hope was that it would be for the good of their village.

She would vanish in smoke after that thought.

Dog would arrive with Rabbit at his side. Tiger would glare at him as between Horse and Rooster, they would managed to arrive with Ox. His stamina in front of their sensei was a farce, but, he could do nothing else. If she figured it out, he would die. And they all knew it, as Tiger's hatred filled eyes seemed to bore a hole in Dog's back. Though the boy didn't seem to take note of it, as Rabbit would met her eye to eye. A challenge and a warning in one, as Hikaru-sensei would arrive last. Everyone knew she had done that on purpose, she was faster than them ...and could have easily overtook them and pass them, but this was a test. She wanted to see what formation they would adapt. It was wisdom that had Ox placed the second from the outside to hide his weakness, with Tiger on the outside, to keep her from attempt anything against Dog, and Rabbit, Horse, and Rooster in the middle between them. The one everyone's eyes would fall upon if they looked at their group would be Rooster, taller and lanker than Ox, but without the muscle build. The Red head was hard to miss, and with Horse at his side. A boy whom's hair was a strange patch work of colors one would associate with a horse with white, black and brown battling equally for a place in his head ...it would be the dull hair color of Dog and Ox that would be missed. A creamy hair coloration was Ox, while, Dog's hair was jet black. Neither were remarkable, when compared to Tiger's orange and Rabbit's silvery-gray. It was as much a protective measure as it was a way to make them look stronger to have those two hidden in their ranks.

Or at least, that was the hope.

Ox wasn't small like Dog. Bigger, bulky in built, and normally with a stance that radiated confidences ...even without the smell of blood in the air around him ...the fact that he was missing from the position of middle was easily notable. Yet, that wasn't the same as noticing that he was on the side instead ...which meant one thing.

It was a good formation.

It covered their weakness, which was necessary considering that all of the different age groups had gathered here. From the oldest to the youngest groups, and though it is well understood that they shouldn't harm each other. It is equally understood, that if one couldn't protect themselves...no one would step in to help. So, even though they hated each other, the younger group would pull together in front of the other age groups.

Being younger and smaller was already a disadvantage, standing alone against them would be death, and so, for the moment everyone would get along as they looked forward.

IT is rare for them to be pulled from training like this, and even rarer for all the age groups to be brought together. And thus, everyone was wondering what was going on, the sensei was including on that chain of thinking as the Commander would finally appear.

At his side, walked a man that none of the student's would recognize, but every one of the sensei would. They would catch their breathe and try not to let their nervousness show. Afterall, it wasn't everyday that a war hero would approach them, and even rarer that one of such a high rank.

"Danzou-sama."

The commander would speak.

"This is our small group of Root shinobi."

The man would stop and look over at them. One side of his face were covered by a thick bandage as he looks from one child to another with his one good eye, and then from one sensei to another. The smile that grace his face made almost everyone shiver.

Not knowing someone, didn't dispel that creepiness that seemed to make up that man's aura, and having that one eye fall on you.

The Commander understood their reaction as he looks at the groups.

Rabbit's shiver happen almost as soon as that eye fell on him though he managed to still it after the initial tremble. Some of the other children, were still shivering as only Dog seemed to be completely oblivious to it. It was the right reaction, and he hoped it was enough to convince him of his past words.

"They look quite capable, despite your words."

Danzou's eyes would fall on Dog. It wasn't enough ...as the Commander saw the direction of his stare, and he had to still his own trembling. He was under no falsehoods about what was going to happen, and there was nothing he could do ...but hope that ...he took that calmness for stupidity than bravery.

They wasn't ready yet, none of them were, but the youngest group especially.

"I would like to utilize four of them for this mission. It is one that I can't trust to anyone else in the village, I am sure you heard what happen to Hyuga clan, yesterday."

The commander wouldn't look at the man beside him as he spoke. His voice, that everyone knew can be as cold as ice was to the point where even stone might have shattered in the coldness of it.

"Yes."

"The attempt kidnapping of one of our village children, one of the Hyuga clan, and how the attempted Kidnapper was killed. Yet, for the sake of peace ..."

And he gritted as he said those words.

"...we are to kill and hand over the body of the Hyuga whom dealt with the kidnapper."

Those words came out like it was being pulled from the bottom of his soul. There wasn't a person in this village that thought that was right, and if people were given a choice, if the village wasn't so desperate for a reprieve from the fighting that had consume the village for years ...there would have been no way they could have gotten especially the Hyuga clan to agree to it. The execution had taken place, and they were to bring the body to the village of the Hidden cloud.

Yet, that was where the village's patients with the incident had run out.

There wasn't a free shinobi in the village that would escort the body. Not only would they have to travel with the Hidden Cloud escorts, but, once the ruse of whom they actually have or what they didn't have was realized ...there was a good chance that the shinobi that went with them ...would be killed.

So, for the most part it was a bitter suicide mission, and everyone knew it.

Everyone but the children that stood before him ...like so many tin solders. They had no clue that this man were here for one reason...to visit death amongst them, and that by having the Commander call them forward like this. The only one that could protect them from it was helpless.

"That is it, though the killing part is already over. So I simply need four to escorts the body to the Hidden Cloud. I want ..."

And, everyone of the sensei's eyes fell. Their last bit of hope extinguished ...they had hoped ...at the least to choose the students that would accompany him. Those that wouldn't have made it through the program anyway, or at least those old enough to let death slide off of them easily. That wasn't the choice that Danzou gave them nor was those the students he choose to take.

His hand would point first to Dog, the Commander had to struggle not to clench his teeth. He knew why their Saitou was picked. His part in the Roots program, the reason for it's formation was no secret in the upper ranks even if the lower didn't know about it. Then it would go to Tiger, and there would be a chill that ran up Rabbit's back. Dog might not take any heed of the danger she was to him, but Rabbit didn't miss it ...as he hoped to be picked next so that he could stand with his brother against her. Yet, that hand didn't fall on him as this Danzou-sama picked one from the middle age group, a boy, and then finally one from the eldest group, another boy. One of the more accomplish students at that and then he was done as the Commander realized he had picked the ones with highest potential and two of the youngest for this suicide mission.

It was enough to shatter this group's heart ...as the Commander could read a second reason for what he was doing. The Hokage hadn't been alone in wanting Root's creation, there had been another, and he had no qualms about their ages, but about their usefulness.

"Children are weak and hard to focus ...unless you blood them a bit."

Those had been his exact wording.

So maybe, he wanted to bloody them now, and see what could be made from the youngest group.

The Commander didn't know.

Then again, it might have simply been that he saw the weapon that Saitou was or could have been...as a enemy's tool. One that he felt still belonged in the hands of the enemy ...even though they currently held it. It wasn't a long shot to believe either, they had destroyed the compound ...and killed all those present, but the real mastermind ...him or she ...still lived. And that was enough to make, ever hair stand on the back of one's neck when they look at the dark hair and dark eyes boy.

Could he be called back to the enemy side at any time? With their training, and now, Konoha's ...there was no question of how deadly and dangerous the boy could be. Did, he simply want to gauge him in a situation where the enemy might do his job for him.

The Commander was sure that was a no, but sure wasn't the same as being definite.

He wasn't a happy man as the rest of the students were taken away and the four remained standing in the grass.

Tiger was smiling deviously as Dog looked straight ahead. Mountain and River, the two students from the middle group would look ahead with a lock glance, but that was only in appearance. He could see them fidgeting a bit with excitement, the life of a shinobi even after the Forest of Death still held wonder for them. Only Dog would have his full attention ahead, only he would block out everything as he eyes locked on Danzou. A tremble of recognition would spark there, but, then ...as the Commander walked towards them it would disappear ...as a slight brown coloration that had came to that spark would once more sink into blackness ...to be noted later as simply a trick of the light.

Surely there would be no connection between the bastard and the Hero.

Memories ...

Roots members didn't have memories ...because ...they didn't have a past.

Dog was who he is.

There was nothing more.

Other than the mission ...

he was nothing more.

**The End of Part 10 - SOUL EATER**


	12. Chapter 11: Rain

**CHAPTER ELEVEN- RAIN**

Dog felt the rain as it slid down his face. It would mingle lightly with the blood on his cheek and run red streaks down his face. His hair plastered against his skull would stick to the side of his face and get into his eyes as he resolved to have it cut after this was over. Though he made no motion to move it out of the way, it was both a advantage and a disadvantage to be out in this weather, as the rain fell heavily. The sure amount of it was enough to wash away his trail, and to make visibility within a hand's stretch of himself impossible. He couldn't be tracked by normal means, and there was a good chance, they would pass within a nose of him and still miss him even if they could. Though, that meant that he was lost in the forest, and he couldn't use the stars nor backtrack over his own trail. There would be no seeking out help nor going back to camp, he was on his on for the night. Though, against this particular breed of shinobi, this blinding rain meant that the playing field was for once even, if only he had the weight and muscle mass to make it count. Yet, he didn't, as his dark eyes would dart to and fro watching the shadows as he presses his back against a tree and held perfectly still.

Movement was easier to detect in absolute darkness.

That meant that it was best to stand still, and not fight, because, he would lose.

Though losing wasn't the problem, if he had been the one with the decoy ...his losing would have been in the plan. Their defeat of him would have meant nothing, and if they had killed him ...that meant more time they took away from searching for the one with the decoy. That would have been victory either way, but he wasn't. He held what they wanted, and so, he couldn't be found ...he couldn't win the fight, and if they killed him, it wouldn't be a waste of time ...because there would be no one to relay the message of the lost. No one would know that he had failed, and by the time they discovered it, their enemy would be long gone.

If they managed to see him ...managed to catch a glimpse of him ...it was over.

They couldn't lose, he couldn't be seen, and thus, he had to stand still in the pour rain.

A flash of lightning would strike then, and his entire world would suddenly be engulf in light and shadow.

The entire area would be illuminated in that moment ...as it would seem that the heavens themselves would betray him. Staring straight at him, one of the enemy stood ...in the darkness he had been searching and in the light he had found. And as the boom of thunder roared afterwards and the world was once more plunged into darkness so suddenly that Dog lost all vision in that world of night ...one thing was clear.

He had failed, and his mind leapt back over the events that had brought him to such a fate.

He was going to die.

_The mission was a simple one. _

_The commands hidden._

_The difficulty faced was only a matter of perspective._

_These things Dog knew ...as he watches his commander walk away from them. The man giving them the details that he figured they needed, but there was others he gave without saying a word. The crunch of grass underneath a foot that would have normally been silent. A trail where there should be none, only Dog noticed these signs of the Commander's anger. And only Dog, would have missed the significants of them as the Commander gave them his final words before their mission, and they would follow after their new Master for the moment, Danzou._

_There was so much to lose if they failed._

_Nothing to gain if they succeeded._

_It was the first true test of Roots ...nothing except the mission._

A kunai would slice though his right shoulder ...pain making it easier to get his bearing back. The boy was a deer in the headlights for only a moment as he realized that his opponent had been blinded by the rapid change of darkness and light as well. Otherwise, that kunai would have found his throat instead of his shoulder as he moves to try and escape. Futile, but, so was simply standing there as he would leap for the trees, and feel the smack of branches against his head and shoulders as he leap blindly.

A whistle sound would urge him higher.

He had only wanted to protect his back ...when he had first press against the tree. But now, it was his guide as his hand touches the bark as he rose higher and higher into it's leaves. He wouldn't be there when the shinobi regain his vision, but he was leaving more than enough of a trail to make it clear where he was gone.

Darkness made things clearer than light.

_Mission, this wasn't a real mission._

_It had been called that by one of those whom perspective differ. Who thought this was a foolish and useless thing that had been done as the council assembled outside of the gates for their silent and secret departure. They council was spilt about this mission, and even then made it clear. Though this was probably because the most powerful of the members was so against this. He only allowed it because it had already happen ...and there wasn't a known jutsu that could bring back the dead. He only stood by, because, the Hokage had commanded it._

_So, he had accepted, but not relented. _

_Dog's education was seriously lacking. For Mountain and River had understood the danger in that, but he and Tiger had missed it. The danger in the symbol of the red and white fan._

It was a pity he knew it now.

Dog saw those symbols of red and black as another strike of lightning would threaten his vision again, but this time he was more prepared. He wouldn't be blinded again as he reached the top of the tree to discover that he was now being chased by not one but three, and closed his eyes to allow himself to adjust to the darkness before it fell. The boy would wait a heartbeat for darkness to descend again before he would push it into the broken opening at it's top, and then he would leap away.

He could only hope they would follow and not find it.

The Iron box that contain the head of the dead.

_The trip hadn't been pleasant by any means. Their supplies had been tamper with, they had nearly walk into several booby traps, and their last night's camping experience had been without rest. They were being hounded, but so far, they weren't being directly harm._

_They all were expecting a ambush, but, not at the meeting place. Not as they were about to make the exchange to the Hidden Cloud nin that would take the head to their village. Not at the borders, where the disruption would come to naught, for the hidden cloud would know that they were trying to honor their agreement._

_Though, maybe, that wasn't their goal, and that is why they struck then. _

_Though, that didn't mean they weren't prepared._

_A genjutsu had been used, two of three of the containers were fake, so, when they had attacked the plan had been put into action. Only River turned to face the enemy with the two Cloud nin at his back, while the other three ...were meant to run and escape. The enemy didn't expect them to turn and stand together, cloud and leaf._

_It would be a symbol of their peace._

_Though there was five, and though, Mountain, Tiger, and Dog had split from each other going in different directions. Three would have to stand up to River and the Cloud in order to secure the pursues back. That left only two to follow after their them. It should have given them 2 out of 3 chance of picking the right one, and fifty fifty chance of capturing the one they were chasing. But, two of the five had gone directly after Dog. The Genjustsu hadn't fool them for a second, and none of the other shinobi had realized it ...as they each strive to complete their part of the mission._

Shortsighted

He knew he was being short sighted, because, if they kill him ...no one would ever find the head. And that would be the same as success for the enemy, but, the chances of success were higher this way. 15% chance that his own team would stumble upon it ..then the 5% if he was caught with it and the enemy took it away. Thus he ran onwards with them in rapid pursue, the number changing from one to three shinobi in his field of vision. He knew that one of those three had to have come from River's group ..that can't be a good indication of how their fight had gone as exhaustion was starting to take hold.

And the boy would make a decision that could only be called suicide in this down pour.

He changed directions as he felt the rain slicing through his clothing. The cold so absolute that his fingers were starting to go numb and his clothing themselves seemed to gain more weight. Would it be worst than that ...he couldn't help the question. He already knew the answer as he would see it below him ...for keeping the upper hand was the only thing that helped him elude them now.

Another blob of blacked moved in the trees ahead of him.

Another flash of lightning, and he would see four.

He couldn't go forward any further. His chances of survival with that interferences dropped to 25%. He couldn't hesitate as he leapt from the top branches. He would fall through the trees. They would seemingly try and grab at him, pulling and scratching and snatching as he broke through them and hit the water below. A tree limb whole and heavy would smack him across the back as the water cushion the collision, and his mind shift to trying to keep his head above water. This river had raged out of control and swell and grown in this weather. It had been his target once he realized escape was impossible. His goal had been to reach the far side, his opponent had forced him to land direction in the middle of the flow where the current was strongest.

They couldn't follow him there if they valued their lives.

It was only thankful that he did not.

For there was only the mission ...

**Chapter Eleven: Rain ended**

**Chapter Epilogue...**

_Dog would wake in the shallow water. His vision wavier ...as he sketched with one hand and pulled his body over his drawing carefully with the other. They would find him dead, he knew he had swallowed a lot of the water, but he had spew out as much as possible to breathe. His heart rate was slowing, he was so cold, and he knew it was shock that would do him in. Ironic considering he felt none of the emotions that should ravage him with the threat of death hovering so close. And the shock was a function of his body only, everything was so cloudy and dark._

_At least he had learned one thing, he did feel cold._

_Though he couldn't be chilled._

_His head would land heavily as he finished his drawing and roll over on top._

_If they thought to look under him, the enemy would know where he stashed it. If they did not ...his own would find it. 50% chance of either possibilities, but in then as everything was drowned out he thought of one last possibility he had neglected ..._

_maybe they wouldn't find him at all._


	13. Chapter 12: ASSIST

**CHAPTER TWELVE- ASSIST**

Dog would sink in the cold and wet.

His consciousness would drift away and under ...even as shadows fell across his body and a foot would kick him harshly in the side. Even as that one strike was followed by another and another, until someone made them stop. As blood drip from a burst lip, and one eye shed blood on one side, and the cut on his cheek spilt even more ...he didn't become aware. Even though the bruising from their kicks would leave his belly, back, legs, and chest with splotches of big black marks, he never even twitch. Even as one of those marks on his arm was overlap with red ...it wouldn't bring him back to the world.

Dog was far beyond all that.

Yet, the gentle touch of a hand on his face ...of fingers press against his skin would make his consciousness surge upwards for a moment as his body shudder despite his own aloofness.

He was alive.

Heat, cold, and pain ...would submerge him and sink him again as soon as the hand drew away. He would ride a tide between delirium and nothingness after that, and after floating on it for many days would he finally find light in darkness. A single glimmer of hope or was it something of the past ...as a melody, a humming would pierce it, and lead him back towards the surface.

Though when he awoke it would be to find himself bandaged and covered in a blanket.

The blue sky was above him, and the clouds roll lazily past.

It was daylight, and it was dry. The rain had pass.

The sweep of something to his side, would make him turn his head slowly and painfully. His right eye was open, but despite his urging his left would remain close ...as he peered at the back beyond him. The red and white fan was there, the symbol he had seen once before on the shirt, as the head that belonged to that back would rise higher. The sun light highlighting hair that was as pitch black as his own, and as his face turn ...eyes with a tinge of red in them would look at him. A face framed by black straight hair with the headband of his own village would stare him in the face.

"Am I ~?"

Dog's voice would croak ...sounding alien even to him as the man ...no, he is a boy, would move with the grace of a shinobi. A speed that made no sound, a elegances that could only be graceful if it didn't hold death in it's hands. He was skilled, this boy as Dog looks at someone that didn't look to be more than 5 or 6 years his senior as the boy would reach for his hand. It was only then that Dog would realize he hadn't been able to feel them as the boy would pull up a hand that look to be bandaged all the way to the thick blanket that cover him.

What had happen?

"Don't speak, you have been unconscious for three days. You have serious wounds all over, and you had been left exposed to the elements over night."

The boy would tell him as though reading the question in his mind, for he knew it would never reach his eyes.

"We are taking you back to the village. Our mission failed, but, there is no sense in letting one of our own die because of it."

Those words were projected over his shoulder at something that Dog couldn't see. Though a rustle of movement would make it clear that they weren't alone. That didn't curve the boy's tongue at all as he went over the events of what had happen. Though he lower it to a whisper, it was easy to understand, now that the mission was over ...he saw no reason why they should hold any secrets. Especially when he would find out once they got back to the village, and his testimony might make a differences in how his clan was treated after this.

Dog had succeeded in his mission.

In the darkness, they had miss the iron box, and because they were so caught up in chasing him they miss the flashes of light on metal as well. Every time that lightning flared up, the box would shine like a beacon over the forest. His own companions had easily found it, and so, as the boy's group struggled to catch him ...his own team had retrieved the box and delivered it. Leaving him to his fate, though with one failure it was inconceivable they would allow another. Though his companions hadn't felt that way ...as they had follow him through the currents, track him along it's banks, and finally found him half-drown, shivering from cold, and dying from hyper-thermal without the box. They had beat him, upon realizing their mistake, until the boy had made them stop.

His own disgust at their actions was easily noted. Though dog's focus was elsewhere ...as he took into account one truth from that report, the boy was in charge. How a 13th year old boy could be giving commands to full adults told him much of this boy's ability and ranking. Dog would pay more attention to the distances they gave the boy after that. It told much and confirm that the boy was indeed their leader ...as said boy, sat by his head holding his hand. Squeezing it, a bit of pressure would indicate he was testing him for feeling.

Dog would finally squeeze back as the story came to an end.

"Good, you will keep your finger and toes then."

He would declare as though that was enough. He wouldn't speak again to him as he gave a sharp whistle and would start to pack up, four other members would come into camp before he was done. They would bundle him up, and depart. It was a long trip, maybe about 4 days, considering he had slept for 3 of them ...he already knew he was probably deem dead by his own team. Which was probably for the best, because, if they had been the ones to find him ...he would have been.

Weakness equal death.

During those four days, he learned of the reason for the raid. It was fear, fear that if the village was willing to sacrifice one Kekkei Genkai user for the sake of peace they wouldn't hesitate to do it to another. The strongest blood line users were the Uchiha clan according to them, and the thought that they might soon be viewed as being valuable only for their eyes was a real problem. After all, there was many clans & villages that would agree to almost anything for a chance at one of their eyes, so, what could they bargain for with a whole clan full of them. Thus, they couldn't let this be seen as a complete success, or otherwise, the hidden leaf might sell all their lives for whatever they deem necessary.

For the Uchiha, this was a matter of survival.

Though even then, this was to be a bloodless mission, because, they were still loyal to their village. If they started to kill their own, it could start a civil war. The Uchiha clan was as tired as any with war, so, though their mission failed, the boy was determine he would avoid the real disaster of this mission. War, his entire clan could be branded as traitors, and the meaning of this assault would be lost in bloodshed. Though Dog knew that wouldn't happen even if they hadn't saved him, but, he hadn't felt up to explaining that to him. He was expandable. No one cared if he lived or died, so whether they brought him back or not, it wouldn't change anyone's opinion of what they had done. It would be left to the world to form their opinion of the Uchiha incident.

The final day of their journey quickly arrived, as upon reaching their village's borders the four other men would disappear. They were returning home, and leaving their leader with the charge of completing the last leg alone. That didn't seem to bother him, for it gave him a chance to talk to dog without their interfere as he would wait only long enough to set up camp before braking the silences, once the were gone.

"I never asked you ..."

The boy would start.

Dog would place the wood next to the fire. At this point, he was able to walk around a bit, and his fever was completely broken. Thus, he was no longer just a dead weight in the camp, and had started to pull it a bit, in his desperate bid to get his strength back. He still tire easily and found himself sleeping more than awake, but he was much stronger than when he was dragged from the river's banks.

"...what is your name?"

Dog would look at him for a moment blinking lightly as he walks over to him and sat down. Would it give away too much to answer him? He went over his training in his head, and saw there was no protocol that went against his answering that question, truthfully.

"I don't have one ...though for now I am called Dog."

That answer would have one eyebrow arching higher than other. But when silences extended between them the boy would take it as his turn to talk, again.

"I see. My name is Itachi Uchiha. You, look like you could be Uchiha ...black eyes and hair. If it wasn't so shaggy and unkempt, I bet someone might mistake you for my brother. My clan normally are careful about where they place their seed, but, there are a few who become wanton in time of war."

The boy would state calmly.

"I wonder if you are the offspring of such a situation, there is no way to know that now. You look troubled."

Dog would look at him with a blanket expression, the switch in topics happen quickly.

"I don't have the emotions to display such a thing."

Dog would retort as Itachi would only shake his head.

"Your face isn't the only thing that show expression or emotion, so does your body language. You are restless, fidgety, and it's hard to miss that every moment you are able to ...you flex or lift or try to bend."

"Uchiha eyes miss little."

Dog would only stare at him, and Itachi would chuckle lightly before continuing.

"You are so like my brother staring to ask a question. He does that too ..when he wants more information, but is afraid to ask for it."

"Not saying you are afraid."

"He is about your age, maybe, or give or take a year, and waiting for me to return. He know nothing of war or death, innocent. I want to keep him that way ...but, I don't if I can."

His eyes would drop to his own hand. He would clench it in a gesture of his own helplessness.

"You could have easily been him, and you he." "You have experience so much, I doubt you have ever known innocents, and will probably die in the shadows." "So, just in case no one ever say this to you, I want to thank you. I want him to know only peace in his life, and what you have done will insure that ...for a few moments longer, anyway."

Itachi was no fool.

He had figured out that Dog didn't belong to any known branch of Konoha. He was on a mission that would be ranked about an A or B, and he wasn't old enough to be in the academy, yet. His attempted suicide spoke of little value placed on his own life, and the way his comrades simply left him behind didn't speak well of the one whom had trained them either. They were as expandable as dolls, and it made the boy feel sick to the stomach to think of what had sprung from the depths of Konoha's shadows.

War made monsters, and peace can destroy them.

He would look upwards at the full moon. It promise of light in the darkness, but, the full moon was also associated with so much horror and fear. A new moon, he couldn't help wondering what this one would mean ...to the boy, to Dog. The name made him want to spit. Who would call a kid Dog? The same one he was going to return him to, because he had no choice. There was a great temptation to take this boy and hide him away ...squirrel him to safety and bring him to the village, some whelp that one of his clan members might had father during their time aboard.

But that wasn't to be ...as he closed his eyes and let them fall on the boy once more.

"I don't know what got you so antsy, but if I can help ...don't hesitate to ask for me."

Dog would only nod, and silences would descend again. Deeper somehow, harder to break, and with everything out in the open, Itachi wouldn't bother to break it.

That silences would last until morning, as they would walk the last few steps. Dog not only insisting in walking, but carrying his own stuff as he trembled and shook with the effort.

There was one man waiting for them at the gate. A man with silvery hair that stood there with his eyes train to one spot. He looked like he was used to waiting there, and probably had come ...everyday since the other group had returned. His eyes would fall first on Itachi, and then on Dog. Dog would lock eyes with him then, and then start to walk away from Itachi towards him. His marching strides was that of a shinobi going to his execution. Itachi would instinctively draw one hand into his sleeve to draw his kunai, but he forced himself not to make any further moves. He could sense the deadly intentions as the man walks over to meet Dog, but, this wasn't his place to do anything about it. The man stare downwards at Dog.

"You survived ..."

There was no warmth there.

"You had to be brought back."

Dog would nod then.

"We will discuss this later."

The man would then turn and look at Itachi.

"Thank you for retrieving him."

Though there was no gratitude in that voice, only a resignation that made it clear ...Itachi never should have brought him back. The man would then reach out and touch the boy, and in a shower of leaves they both would be gone, the child shinobi, of unknown rank, and the medic-nin of the one squad that bathe in it. What had he done?

END OF CHAPTER 12: ASSIST


	14. Chapter 13: IMPACT

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN- IMPACT**

The moon shone above him ...the darkness swirled around in patterns that showed that there was clouds even when the sky was so dark that one wouldn't recognize them. The stars shining down twinkling and lit the sky so that without the moon it wouldn't truly be dark. This had been his world for a month ...as the boy would rest with his back against the bark of the tree. His eyes as dark as the sky, a black so absolute that no light escape, as he press his head against the wood and felt the grainy texture press against his scalp.

He was still alive.

Though that was all ... or maybe that was enough.

It had been decided upon his return, not a clean death, but, exile ...a slow death.

He had been deem unfit to continue in his duties, and the weak ...was not needed. Those whom couldn't protect themselves or serve no purpose were left behind, and so, he had been left here. Until he died, a failed experiment once more, and he accepted that ...but dying wasn't an easy thing to do. And, the boy was finding out that he was kind of bad at it...as his stomach rumbles, and he would sit up. The long broken body of a snake would be draped over the branch below him ...as he would simply drop down to where it rest. The large reptile had been halfway consumed already, one of his successful hunts as he pushes back lengthening hair.

It fell badly around his face, and was so thick and long that he might as well be a girl with all of it. It was hard to tell otherwise from a distance, and kept getting in his way vision wise. If it wasn't for the fact that long hair kept the parasites alway from his expose neck and face at times he would have hacked it off.

Hacked off hair ...

A memory would stir at that thought.

A girl ...a woman compared to him in age ... she had been left to die here as well. One he should have let die, but, his manta ...his mission still rang in his heart. He was a tool, but he was a tool to support the great tree of Konoha ...it's people and it's wishes ...were his to protect and support.

She and 9 others had been placed there with a curse upon them.

He remember seeing it from his studies ...what they looked like, the curse mark. Though the survival rate was dismal for all that had it put upon them, and they looked to all be half death. Their bodies shaking and wiggling in pain ...they would have died here, and it would seem that they had been left there unprotected to do just that. But, they were from Konoha, their headbands said so, they weren't Root. He could tell from how they moan and asked in so many ways for help ...Root never asked for help. That meant they were from the tree, and he was suppose to protect them, so he had guarded them during the night. Bringing food, water, and everything else needed so that they could survive, but nine of them had died anyway.

The girl he had thought was amongst them until she open her eyes and looked at him ...and he saw it for the first time ...hatred.

A flicker of a face would interrupt the memory, Tiger.

Maybe, not his first time seeing it, but it was his first time ...recognizing it.

She had recognized easily where she was, knew the lay of the land, and what had happen. She knew whom had done it to her ...and told him so, her master.., her sensei had cursed her, but it wasn't the curse mark that made her hate him ...it was the abandonment.

He had left her to die.

Though the boy couldn't understand why this bother her.

The weak died, and she had been weak when he come upon her. It made sense, and he had told her so as she explained her situation to him.

Though that wasn't enough, and she had told him as much.

Afterall, he had tried to save them ...and had saved her. So, obviously, he didn't completely believe that.

The boy could say nothing against as she continued her rant.

She told him heatedly that a real mentor didn't leave his subordinate to die, that if he cared about her, he wouldn't throw her away. And, that was when he understood how much emotion got in the way. She had felt more about her mentor than simple admiration, she had loved him.

The Memory would be overlapped again.

Tiger had loved Ox, too, and it had lost him a eye and would have cost her ...her life if he hadn't intervene.

Love is pointless and worthless.

He would not love.

Eventually, the man whom abandon her returned. Though his reasoning hadn't been to retrieve the living, but the dead or what was left, though he told her otherwise. Blaming their fate on some foolish error, and she had play along with his excuse. The girl ...Anko had promised not to tell her Mentor about him ...for he had seen him coming long before he reached them. He had wanted to take her away, but she wanted to go back with her mentor, but, it wasn't for good reasons.

He had given her ..his name as a promise to be kept secret from her mentor.

He couldn't understand how surviving wasn't enough for her, but then, that hadn't been enough for Tiger either.

The memory done, his mind would turn back towards food.

He would need to eat as much as he can this time, otherwise, the meat would go bad.

And once it started to do that, the scent would bring other more powerful predators.

That would make it worthless as food, but, he could use it for bait to capture more food if he was quick about it.

He would turn his face back to the stars.

He had learned a lot here ...left here when he barely had the energy to go a full thirty minutes without having to rest somewhere ...he saw only death here when he first arrived. When he couldn't carry much more than his own food satchel without his hands shaking, and when his legs would buckle and drop him when he over-extorted himself, he wonder if it would be bloody or slow. If he would starve or be torn apart first, and he was prepared for both.

He shouldn't have lasted the day according to his sensei ...he had thought he wouldn't last the night.

They had brought him here under the cover of darkness, so that none of the other students would be aware. His brother had known, the silver haired boy had been hiding under his bed when he was taken. They always slept together at night, and that night hadn't been any different. Though the boy had been more tense than normal, and constantly rubbing up against him as he shifted around all night, it had been good not to be complete alone.

They both knew he wouldn't last the night.

Though, he had expected a quick death ...as he remember their hot breathes on his back.

The pack of wolves had been hunting him from the moment he had been dropped here. Relentless, powerful, he had tried at first to escape them through the trees, but he didn't have the strength to climb up high enough and had fallen badly ...before he could get out of their range. Crashing into the midst of the pack, they had moved to tear him apart when his own power had activated.

The blood from the scratches, the deep wounds from their teeth ...it had summon his own power, his kekkei genkai, as his blood had responded to his need. The Spikes that had been summon in the pools had stabbed through the head of the leader, and the rest of the pack that had shared his blood shared an even more grisly fate. HIs body had attacked from the inside and fought it's way out.

It was what saved him, and what keeps him alive even now. He was stronger now thanks to his ordeal, and he was much more powerful than before.

The boy would pull one scale from the reptile's hide and cut his hand on it ...as blood would slowly seep from the wound, and he would start to concentrate on it ...as the blood itself would drip down, but not fall. Instead he would practice as he did every day since he discover his own skill with the substance ...as the blood would shape at his will into spikes, dripping further, he would shape it into a kunai with his other free hand and the badly fashion brush he had created. Then he would change the shape ...as he weave it into a pattern in the air ...as he drew it in the sky itself, the blood would form into that of a bird. The crow would spread it's bloody wings, the entire creature was about the size of his longest finger, it would perch there.

If he wanted to make it bigger, he had to give it more blood, but for now it was enough as he press his hand against the wound as the bird would perch higher on his shoulder to avoid being crushed.

"Scout for water."

He would tell it.

Though he had found plenty of water sources, he had learned the first week, that he wasn't the only predatory here. Though that was an understatement in this forest, his thoughts would turn the information slightly, he wasn't the most intelligent hunter here, and there were plenty of creatures that lay traps if they find out you frequent one place too much.

The boy would touch his cheek where a claw mark score it.

Corpse was his new name.

Though he had no plan of becoming one ...not just yet anyway.

The bird would disappear into the distances as Corpse would start to eat as much of his prey as he could stomach before he would move on. It's return would signal a new destination, as he would leave the snake behind and start forward into the darkness of the forest of death.

The wind was whistling as he traveled through it. Much stronger now, he had many scars along his belly, side, and face, but he had survived the worst of it. He wasn't going to die any time soon, and he was in peak condition now, no longer weak.

His mind turn this thought over more.

Solitude didn't bother him.

He had food, water, and could find shelter.

He wouldn't die easily here.

This would be a good home for him.

He would give an extra swing of the branch he was vaulting to as he would come upon it in a squat position. His eyes staring downwards, he knew better than to simple bounce downwards into a clearing. Danger often hid. Thus, he was still under cover as he came upon the water source to see him standing there. The commander, as the stars twinkling upon the water would give him an eerie glow as the man look upwards into the trees at him. Corpse would freeze, it was uncanny as the man locked eyes with him almost as if he had expected him there and had been waiting on him. There was no sense in trying to hide, he shifted a bit to test the theory and saw the eyes follow him, he knew he was here.

"Corpse, your exile is over. Return to us, Onryo."

The boy would move even though logic told him otherwise. He had thought the girl mad when she had gone back to her Master, but at his call ...Corpse saw no other life. He would follow him until told otherwise, as he left Corpse behind him. He would jump from the branch to land in the dirt at the commander's feet. It would be Onryo who bow on one knee in front of him in typical style of shinobi showing respect to his master.

The Commander would only nod once.

"You survived, so, you are worth keeping alive. Come with me, now."

The boy would follow as the man didn't turn to look not once behind him.

Onryo was his, Saitou was his child, though he couldn't give him the life of a normal shinobi, he would make sure that he would survive in this nightmare of one. That was his mission, his goal, as they left the forest and Onryo would return to training to find that his own little group was missing one ...a death had happen to his group, but it hadn't been his own.

Years would pass before he would have to experience another.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN -IMPACT END


	15. Chapter 14: Finale

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN- FINALE**

Change always comes when one least expected, and more often than not, it's harsh. Though this wasn't a change that caught them by surprise, and though harsh, they had no choice. They all knew what changes their actions would reap, but, when you are the roots that support the great tree ...nothing else mattered.

They would do what was necessary for the sake of all.

The Commander pace as he thought about their mottos, their plans, and he would fling his items on the desk across the room as he hit the desk with both fist afterwards. They had been had, he had fallen right into their trap, and the answer for his failure was death. Was his death, were their deaths, was everyone's deaths ...as he saw Satome enter, and he couldn't even look at the man. He figured the noise had drew him here, but, he rather he could send him away ...far away.

"It's bad isn't it?"

He would look at the man then, the medic that had trusted his life to him. The man whom he had known as a boy, protected in the war, and now, if he continued to stand at his side would die the death of a dog.

He wouldn't allow that.

"It's really bad, I want you to tell the others. Get them the hell out of here, past the village's borders ...hell past the borders of this country and never come back."

He would say the words with clench teeth.

Satome was puzzled as the Commander would show him the orders on the scroll at his feet, and then he would go pale.

"They can't seriously?"

The Commander would drop his eyes as he said those words.

"They mean it, we are trapped, either we do this and our deaths have meaning, or we don't and are executed anyway. I should have known, they would never let it go. No matter what we did, all our accomplishments, nor how far they made me fall to protect them ...they never was going to let me succeed. They were going to kill him from the beginning, and now ...I have dragged so many down with him.

They gave me false hope, I should have slit his throat when I had the chance.

They were just playing with me."

He choked on the words of his own rant. His regret so thick that it almost has it's own physical essence. Their orders were clear, they were ordered to wipe out a clan in Konoha, and take the fall for the deed. If they did not, they would take the fall anyway, and by sunrise of that same day, they would be fighting for their lives. They would die as murderers, and worst still ...as betrayer of the village. Satome was sick as he sat down, and the Commander gather enough of his wits about him to summon the others. It had to be known, the Elders and the Hokage had betrayed them. And, this was to be their last mission, for the commander refused to have his wife and child be ashamed of him.

He would die the part of the hero.

He didn't expect anyone else would choose this route.

The other answer was to become Missing nin and to forever be hunted by their own clan members and bounty hunters. It wasn't much of a life, but it was better than death ...as they assemble the students. This would be for the one of the two last times that they assemble everyone together, and the look on their faces.

The Commander had to keep his face blank, his emotions tightly under wrap, because, he wanted to scream to the heavens. He had turned them into monsters, and for what? A dog's death.

He gave his decree, and he didn't leave out the final results.

Maybe, maybe, there was still enough of a spark of will in some of them to actually ...choose a different path. For once, he had told the others to not hunt down any that ran, he hoped they all would. Though he knew at least, two that would never think of it, and from the training and his own confidences in it ...knew he had a better chance of being struck by a meteorite than any of the others taking the chance, either. He could only hope for a flaw as he saw tiny sparks of surprise in their eyes, and then mostly acceptance.

None of them would run.

And the Commander once more curse his very existences, and damn every one of their leaders to hell for this.

He would turn to leave then, to send his final regards to his family and put as much in his life to right that he could before it was over. He didn't want to look at him standing between the silver hair boy and the boy with the pinto color hair. He didn't want to see, Saitou, who had only been called by his adopted name a few times in his life. Who now went by Corpse, and who would soon become one.

He had failed him ...and they would all die as the boy's voice seem to echo behind him, haunting him even as he receded into the distance.

"Baku, don't hesitate to kill the children too."

Corpse would tell him as he turns to walk away, and head into the forest area on the side of the training grounds. The Silver hair boy would follow as other disperse for their was no training this time, they were free to do with their time whatever they wished. Baku would rush after him, a hand reaching to grab his shoulder as he would force the smaller black hair boy to look at him. His own eyes reflecting a turmoil that he hoped he wasn't alone in. Yet, he should have known better, but, still he hoped.

"Did you hear the commander, we are going to die after this mission."

Corpse dead black eyes would reflect nothing back.

"It doesn't matter."

"We are nothing but the mission." "If our mission is to die, then we die."

Those words made Baku shiver. It had been a full year since Corpse was abandon in the forest after coming back injured from a mission. He had always been shut down, but, he managed to find a completely new level to it. His answers became short, his motives serving only root's purpose or needs. Everything was calculated, and the risk he took, he knew them by heart and had an answer for them long before he did them. He was more machine than human sometimes, and it scared Baku, but the boy didn't run away from him. Even when Corpse had been singled out for secret training, and came back to his room covered in blood ...and when he had gone to bunk with him only to have a kunai at his throat by his still asleep sibling.

He hadn't run away.

He couldn't ...that boy ...his brother so long ago ...looked out through Corpse's eyes. And, he wouldn't take his hand away this time, he continued to hold it out desperately hoping that he would grab it. He had thought he would have more time, but, time it seems had run out as he took the initiative this time.

He would grab his hand, and pull him towards him. The forest would hide them in that moment as the leaves made shadows all around them. The wind carrying his words away as he shouted them at his brother.

"That's not true!" "We are more than just a mission, we are more than just tools."

Baku embraced Corpse in a hug. A tight one as he let his own emotions sweep through him as he clings tightly to his brother.

"We bleed, and feel pain just like everyone else. We have dreams and wants, and I - I - I don't want to die."

"Corpse I'm scared."

The black hair boy would stiffen at the sudden confession as he felt Baku press against him. A tiny spark of memory of another time when someone held him close would flash, but it was too bright and too fleeting for him to quite grasp it. He came back into the moment as he would pat his brother's back as he felt something wet on his shoulder. That was the proper response after all as he thought of other responses.

"I won't let them kill you."

Corpse would tell him then. His voice still devoid of any emotion, but, Baku had been with him a long time now. He understood that the Corpse before the forest was speaking, the unsure, shut down boy, but not the void he had become as he continued his tight hold.

"When the time comes, I will end it for you, so it won't hurt so much."

Baku closed his eyes as tears continue to run down his face onto his brother's shoulders and neck. He understood what was unspoken in his words, I will be there for you until the end, and when the time comes, I will make sure that you don't suffer. It was as much as he could ask for, and more than he could expect as he laughs in his tears.

"The older brother is suppose to take care of the younger."

Corpse would seem a bit puzzled by those words. But finally he would speak on them as if he had come up with the perfect reply.

"I said I would do so, and It would be really painful if we try to kill each other at the same time. This is the best way, besides,I am better with a blade."

Baku would pull back, tears still running down his face as he would smile.

"Was that witty banter? Perhaps a joke?"

Corpse would look him in the face with a serious expression, but, there was a smile in his eyes that wasn't there before. Baku wouldn't call him on it as he parted from him and wiped his face.

"We have a week off, anything in particular you want to do?"

Baku would ask as the smile in Corpse's eyes died, and he went back to his normal look. The silver hair boy would put a hand through his hair, he hadn't meant to do that. Though he knew that Corpse would have reverted back sooner than later, he still wanted that look to remain for a few minutes more.

"How about you paint then ..?"

Baku would supply as the silences extended between them.

"...a book for us."

Corpse would add in.

"I want to create a book for both of us. Though, it will never be completed."

He would tell him, as Baku was both surprise and touch at the gesture. Taking one hand and shielding his face, he would then looked up at the trees and beyond it to the sky. He hoped they would be there waiting for him, his brother and his mother as a serene look came to his face at the thought and the promise. Though, a stray ray would force him to look away.

Baku took his eyes from the heavens to look at the little black hair boy beside him, a glint of light on the metal headband had drawn him away. Eyes as dark as night, and not a shiver of emotion in them. He had grown paler since they started his nightly training sessions, and his hair was now limp, and sheared in such a way as to make it completely uninteresting. He looked the complete opposite of his younger brother, but, Baku knew they would have gotten along well. Both of them are so smart and talented. Though he couldn't help wondering what his mother would think of his adopted brother, or what Corpse's mother ...One thought led to another then as the serene look disappeared from Baku's face, would Corpse follow him there? When one was as stunted as him emotionally ...did his spirit even know when it's over to leave his body? Did he have anywhere to go even if it did?

No, he wouldn't leave him behind. He won't let go of his hand in the end, and he will make sure that they go to that place... Together.

"Let's work on it together."

Baku would tell Corpse, when he noticed the boy was still standing there waiting for an answer from him. The staring contest would have been un-nerving to most, but Corpse simply waited for his response. Then finally receiving his answer, the black hair boy would simply nod as he turned his steps back towards the compound, nothing register as odd about Baku to him. That was Corpse's way. They would spend the week together, eating, sleeping, and working on the book, because, though Corpse had talent ..and the eyes for art, he didn't have the insight or the imagination to create the book on his own. At least not in the beginning, as their time ran out, and the day came.

Baku likes to think that ...the book gave Corpse back a little of what he lost, but, he could never truly be sure.

It was a moonlit night when they were called together again, and in their field stood one other beside their Commander and the one called Danzo. A boy from Corpse's past as their eyes meet even across the distance, and the boy in the grips of manhood would flinch. He recognized him as the Uchiha, and Corpse saw now ...that the one whom spared his life had ...had a reason beside those spoken. One more motive to add to all the others.

He was after all merely a tool.

Itachi Uchiha looked at all the members of Roots, his age or younger, and his fist clench. He opened his mouth to protest this situation only to be interrupted by Danzo as he gave his speech. Everything would proceed as plan, and every one of these children would be killed ...himself included ...for there could be no witnesses of this crime left behind. Since, they will kill the clan down to the last child, there didn't need to be any living testimony of the truth of this night. No one who could talk about the Uchiha mutiny, and no one who can tell of the solution. Just the lie given will prevail.

Only his clan had saw this coming ...when the Hyuuga had been sacrificed, had feared this, and in their fear had brought this about when before it might have never been.

Ironic.

And, here he was helping, causing more deaths ...because, he didn't want to see another war. Irony at it's best, and not the last for he had bargain for his brother's life as the last Uchiha. He had thought of his words at that time as a lie, and never once thought that ...Sasuke would literally become the last Uchiha, for he had remembered their lost cousin as he struck that deal. He had thought he had gotten over on them, but he should have known better.

NO one gets over on Danzo, and said cousin was apart of the select group that had volunteered to die on this mission.

Bullshit.

His group had been selected, but there was nothing volunteer wise about this group, and Itachi knew it. They were all children too young for such a mission, and his cousin should have still been in the academy. Everything would fall on Sasuke now, including, the continuation of their clan.

Itachi sighed.

Hopefully all this darkness would die with them, and...maybe their actions would win some time of peace for the village. No matter how small.

Danzo's speech would end then and he would give the call to move out. The commander couldn't do it, as the silences lapse after the speech. All the different groups would move out behind Itachi, he would lead the massacre, and afterwards ...would assist in the secondary one deep in the forest of death. All would die to the last child, that was the plan, but some plans can change ...as a Raven's hard beak raps on a window on that bloody night.

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN - FINALE**

**(**This was to be the ending to this story, but, somehow, after writing and rewriting this a dozen times I couldn't find a way to sew up all the loose strings. So I might just continue this after this point, and leave this as just another chapter. Thus, this one shall not be registered as complete just yet)


	16. Chapter 15: Massacre

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN-MASSACRE**

The moon was bloody red as they perch in the trees around the compound. Ravens every last one of them, they were waiting for the signal to begin the massacre, and they would fly amongst them dealing death to even the youngest in that compound. Their eyes locked on their target ... as the sight of the village they fought for sat in the background.

The Uchiha clan always wanted privacy.

Tonight they would pay dearly for that.

The Commander steady himself as he sat next to the man that would call their execution as well. He had talked a long time with Satome before this day came, and something they had agreed about come to mind. A way to spare them all, or at least, the children, but it would have to come with a sacrifice ...as a new face would join them.

A vein would twitch in his head at he sight of the Uchiha and his newest accomplice.

"Who is that?"

The commander would asks of the dark cloaked, orange masked stranger.

"None of your concern."

Danzo would hiss at him then.

"You are simply here to follow your final orders ...nothing more, unless, you want me to hunt down your little family. I didn't miss their exit of this place, nor, did anyone else for that matter."

"Her whole, you disgust me ...I am leaving you thing was a nice touch, but you lost a bit when Satome went with her." "I see, only your hardest ...members remain. They have accepted their fate?"

He would ask, as the Commander's thoughts were ripped away from the stranger to him. He knew everything, and there was no promise he would keep his word. Afterall, a man would set up this bloody field, put children in it, and then ...promise to kill everyone afterwards wasn't a man that scream honesty and loyalty.

"No, we haven't ...I think ...I have something you want. A bribe to let us all escape."

The Commander would say the words thickly. He should have known from the beginning, this was how things were meant to go, and if he had done it earlier.

He looked to the trees to the left and right of him, so many young lives could have been spared. As a voice caught on the wind and blew towards him, it wouldn't stop what he did next ...before he gave the signal for them to make this final kill.

"Stay with me Corpse."

Baku would tell his younger brother. He would take one hand and lock it with his as the boy would stare at him and through him. Though he didn't unlock their hands, there was no flicker of understanding of it's meaning ...or any appreciation of it. Though Baku didn't need it, just the fact that he left their hands locks was enough for him. He looked back at the compound.

The main deaths, the ones in the main house would be carried out by the Commander, Danzo-sensei, Itachi-sensei, and finally ...some stranger in a mask. No one knew who he was, or where he came from, but, considering this was a suicide mission ...no one thought to worry about it either. He hid his face, because, he was one who was meant to survive afterwards. Probably someone far up in rank, and probably someone whom is really ...really strong.

For it was no secret, Uchiha is a strong clan.

The signal would finally come then, a hand would drop down, and they would all dive down. The oldest would play as the rear guard, any whom try to escape would be cut down by them. For, those who managed to get that far, would have had to make it through one of the other root members, they would have had to overpowered, killed, and more than likely gain the needed weaponry to be even more deadly at that point. Maybe, even join up in groups if there was more than 1 survivor, so it was very important that the older group kept them from escaping. A job made more difficult by the escapee's desperation. The middle age groups would work closest to the main house since it's believed that they live by rank here ...thus, the closer one gets to the main house, the stronger the opponent. Those older root shinobi would start off with the hardest targets, while the weakest was for the youngest to take care of ...at the outskirts.

This is where Corpse and Baku would hunt ...as they ran down the street soundlessly.

Their training pay off as they went for the first house and would look for an easy entrances. A window long before they went for the door ...doors can make noise when they open, and windows especially those left open ...left none ...as long as you were careful.

They were lucky at this house, the bedroom window was open.

Husband and Wife would die in each other's arms.

Baku couldn't help wondering ...if it was more like waking from a dream, their deaths. For they would die in an instant with cut throats, and never rouse from their sleep, moving from one plane of existences to another. Or did their lives simply vanish like a flame in the wind, and the smoke was all that was left ...those husk of their bodies. He didn't get to ponder it long as he thought about his own death, as Corpse would pull at his hand. The two needed to move onwards from there ...they had little time to waste.

There was some odd ...31 Uchiha living here with their families and of the 31, there was only about 10 of those families that inherited the eye. So that meant, amongst those four that went to the main house, they had to split up 10 families for murder, while of their group number not much more than 25 they had to split up 21, with part of their groups being left to prevent escape.

So, for the most part, they were outnumber by their foes ..., but adding in their families ...it was a long night's work.

They would come to the next house, this one wasn't so easy. The window was closed, and the door was barred shut.

There would be no silent approach to this, and as a scream cut through the night's air ...it would seem that they weren't the only one whom had come to this problem.

It was at that sound that the real fight would begin, as the sound of the door being quickly open would come from the other side, and a man ready for battle would appear out of the doorway. His katana in hand, and is eyes hard as steel.

A season warrior.

Corpse would recognize him as such from the way that he held his sword, to the marks on his hands. A hand would push Baku to one side ...as the man steps out, and in one clear motion had strike to cut the boy in two ...if he had stay where he stood. Though this man wasn't the only season warrior as Baku would roll as he was pushed, and would come back up on his feet with his kunai draw and in front of him. A katana verus a Katana wasn't much of a fight. Especially considering this man was dress as a shinobi might be, in the chain mail and loose fitting clothing. He wore the Uchiha insignia on his back, and his stance scream of his prowess in battle. But, this wasn't a battlefield, this was home, and Corpse had recognized something else in his stance.

Corpse would rush past him as the man's eyes that had been locked on silvery hair would flicker to black.

He had seen the boy's movement, and turned his body to one side to try and stop him. That was a mistake that the man would never recover from as Baku's kunai would embed itself in his eyes ...all the way to the hilt, and the man would stumble only a few steps before he crashes into the ground itself. The Kunai throwing training had not been a waste all those years ago.

Nor, had Corpse's observation been wrong ...he was a father.

It had been the death of him.

His little four year old sat not more than a few steps from him in the room. Her eyes huge, and that is how they would remain as Corpse didn't slow. The tanto on his back would be pulled as he plunge it into her chest and without a second thought would push her off of it.

He had made sure not to make her suffer.

His blow sinking through the ribcage and into her heart.

She wouldn't live much longer than her father ...as he pulled it free and then swipe it once in the air. Blood was bad for blades ...as it would splatter across the wall and across a picture of what had once been a happy family. The mother, father, and child ...though the mother was long gone, and would receive them in their deaths. The last visage of a family that had been wipe out that night, and that wouldn't be the last as her body hit the ground with a dull thump.

Corpse would turn at the sound of retching.

He had told Baku not to eat before this mission.

Baku had known they would kill children, his brother's age or younger, his age or older, but it was one thing to see it done. He would steady himself against the doorframe, but as the sound of metal on metal echo through the streets, the scream of the dead and dying drift on the wind ...he knew he couldn't stay there long.

They had more to kill before first light.

This was the life of a monster, assassin, this was their last sin, and as Baku would reach once more for Corpse's hand ...he could only hope it wasn't enough to denial him the right to be with his parents and brother once more.

That they wouldn't be blame for this...as they moved onwards and continued until there wasn't a living soul within it's walls.

This was the Uchiha Incident ...otherwise known as the Uchiha Massacre.

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN-MASSACRE ENDED**

**Epilogue -**

He was annoyed, the man had forced him to stay so late training. And he couldn't help his anger at it ...as he rush towards his home the moon was still red, and in the distances he thought he hard the crow of Ravens. Birds of death, It would be the smell that hit him first, and then ...finally he would see the bodies in the street.

Sasuke would be introduced to death and hatred, but never know the price of it.


	17. Chapter 16: The End

**CHAPTER Seventeen-The End**

The little Uchiha had no clue how close to death he came. He walked into the compound of the dead, bodies everywhere, bodies of his clansmen, and bodies of his friends. He would see the blood streak walls and have their vacant eyes watching him ...never knowing that not all the stares were empty as the roots would slink back into the shadows. The blood dripping from their weapons would blend with the sound of it dripping down the walls, and the little Uchiha would never know ...how close he came to death, nor would he become aware until much later the bargain made to spare him.

He would not be harm.

And the way of controlling him, revenge, would be sewn into his heart.

He was no threat.

Everything was going as plan, and as the children gathered in the forest of death ...the final phase of it was coming to pass. The commander was the last to arrive, he hoped still against all odds that there would be many escapees. They could claim in the chaos of battle to have been killed, but as the moon was replaced by the sun, and the tally was brought to his attention he knew only the dead did not come here.

Those that remain, had come to die, and as he looked at the group that was his youngest ...reduced now to three. His heart throbbed painfully. The boy with silver hair stood beside, his Saitou, and the girl with hair stripped like a tiger stood beside them both. Her eyes so hallow and the spark of life so barren, that the Commander knew, she was one who would seek death with every step she took. She had lost everything.

This final command was a mercy to her.

She would not begrudge him her death. Though his heart throb anyway, they were all so young. They never got a chance at life, and now, he looked over to the side as the two men perch in their own trees in the forest of death would look down at him.

"It's time."

Itachi would move beside him, visibly shaken as he left the tree, but steady as an oak by the time he touched down on the ground. Danzo was on his other side, the man had reminded him that they could no longer wait, and he looked at the children for the fear he knew they should feel. He saw it in some, as they grip hands, and was shocked at seeing that his Saitou had his hand firmly clasp by the silvery hair boy. Though, he would never confuse it as his fear, for he also saw Saitou's kunai resting at the throat of the same boy.

It would seem that they weren't the only ones to make deals.

"Your group can leave now your deal was acceptable. I won't kill any of the men under your commands, as long as you leave now."

The voice would jar him from the nightmare they had created, and the Commander would look at his side. Danzo would smile at him then, and Itachi would be taken aback by the words ...yes, there was other plans in play other than his own. The Commander with his deal had managed to spare his entire group, his family could be brought back to the village if he wished, and their part in this would forever be a secret. Or, he could disappear after this blood bath, and never appear again ...he still had a future as he saw the eyes of his men as he gave the command to retreat.

As he saw their confusion, and in some, flickers of shame at the quick realization as they left. He closed his eyes and clench his hands, this was the only way, because, he knew...

They didn't have the courage to die ...like the children they had raised.

They weren't the future, but they had worked too damn hard to build one, and there was none amongst them that would willingly give away their chance to see it. Even him, and even for his son ...as he thought of his daughter.

A tear slip down his face as he called back before he left.

"Goodbye."

He would hear himself say. The words directed at his adopted son.

He should have said it ...years ago in that barn. When the boy's body was so abused and beaten, when life seemed to have dealt him a bad hand, and the signs were as clear as crystal ...this one was meant to die. He had disobeyed an order then, and see what it had brought him. Then that one death would have been enough, and all those little lights that stood beside him...trembling, confused, anger, sad, and desperate would have continue to thrive in obscurity.

All because, he wanted to save one ...he killed so many.

Foolishness.

Roots was over...disbanded and broken.

He would leave them to their fate ...as a Raven flew overhead. The Commander would never hear the next voice, he would never know that his last gamble, the final bet, had paid off. Until the day the man died, he would always believe he had left them to be slaughtered, and that would break him in a way that left him 10 years older than even the years given to him by the war. He would become, a old man before his time, and live and die in obscurity.

"What are you doing?"

A voice would speak as the bird landed on a branch on a tree, and the one man who could put a stop to this appeared out of the shadows, the hokage.

Though the scene he came upon would be much different than the one that the one the Commander had left. Itachi would also be gone, a man to be hunted, and a goal for his brother until the day he achieve his dream. For, the Commander had given him the keys to a treasure, no, two, if he did it right, and the older man wasn't foolish enough to waste them.

"I did what I had to, and this ...group ...roots, I am disbanding and taking the survivors under my wing."

He would spread his hands to point to all the children whom had just gotten the news of their survival ...as his eyes would lock on the black hair boy as he put away his kunai and the silvery hair one hugging him. Those eyes were lock on him then, even as the other boy tried to drag his attention away. Danzo could see the depth of darkness there, the endless pools of black, and he would smile as he continue to weave his story for the Hokage, for he also saw in them ...a glint of light.

He had many plans...and now he had the means.

For they would be nothing but the mission, they would have no emotions, no ties to the past, no eyes for the present, and no hope for the would be the shadows, and would exist for as long as they was useful, and vanish without a trace once they were not. The perfect soldiers for his cause.

For, he could plainly see the way to accomplish this goal, and he could see the flaws left behind by their Commander.

"NO, they were simply doing it wrong." "That is all."

And in the depths of his soul, as those words echo across their clearing, something inside of the black hair boy would shudder. Though those words had been directed at the Hokage, somehow, he knew ...those words were directed at them.

And, he would grip his brother's hand tightly ...a response that made the silver hair boy's eyes go wide.

Chapter Seventeen - The end

_The end ...was only the beginning._

_/I want to thank everyone who followed this story to the end. Thank you for reading this, and I especially want to thank 1Yui, because, without her, I never would have finished this story.\\_


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